Q&A: Thurmond leaves Labor post after challenging run

You know the economy stinks when Georgia’s labor commissioner is out of a job.

“On Monday, I’ll be officially unemployed,” Michael Thurmond said Wednesday. “And I’m smiling.”

After a dozen years at the helm of the Labor Department, Thurmond leaves behind a long and event-filled government career -- temporarily perhaps. He didn’t run for re-election in November, choosing instead to challenge, unsuccessfully, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson.

Mark Butler, a former Republican state representative from Carrollton, will replace Thurmond.

Thurmond, who turned 58 on Wednesday, is a sharecropper’s son from Clarke County who once worked as a criminal defense lawyer. He spent six years in the General Assembly and later directed the state Division of Family and Children Services. He also guided former Gov. Zell Miller’s welfare-to-work reform.

At Labor, Thurmond was essentially CEO of a 4,000-employee agency with a $450 million budget, most covered by the federal government. He administered the state’s unemployment insurance fund and vocational rehabilitation programs.

Thurmond won national praise for his Georgia Works program, launched in 2003, which matches the jobless with potential employers. More than 60 percent of the program’s enrollees found a job within 90 days, the labor department says.

Thurmond is “most proud of” his department’s role in building the soon-to-open Roosevelt School, a residential and vocational complex in Warm Springs.

But it’s the Great Recession and its jobless aftermath, and Thurmond's response to Georgia's economic pain, that will long mark the commissioner’s reputation.

In an wide-ranging interview at his downtown Atlanta office, Thurmond spoke about the economic future of Atlanta and Georgia and the government’s role in fixing the nation’s broken employment engine.

Q: The Great Recession seems an almost unfair capstone to your labor department career, eh?

A: If you really ever want to be the labor commissioner, you want to serve in this position during the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression. You want the challenge. You want to provide leadership, direction, solutions. It’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve enjoyed it from day one.

Q: From the commissioner’s perch, how bad was the recession?

A: It was frightening. During the fall of 2008, it was just horrendous. It was like we were going into the abyss. We were very close to looking at a total collapse of our economy. People were in shock. Not only were they losing their jobs, but their retirement (plans) went through the basement as well. Home values were plummeting. And people were becoming unemployed who never had to face unemployment before. Obviously, the worst is over.

Q: It is, but we still have double-digit unemployment in Georgia.

A: What people don’t realize is that this was not just a recession; it was a fundamental restructuring of the economy. We are witnessing the basic demise of the 20th century economy, and the Industrial Age job market, and the painful birth of the 21st century economy and a job market that is technology-driven.

Q: Is it likely we’ll ever return to pre-recession levels of prosperity?