Nearly six out of every 10 unemployed workers in Georgia have been out of work for more than six months — believed to be the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the Great Depression.
Even while overall job growth has been improving and the state’s unemployment rate has fallen to 8.9 percent, the situation for those out of work at least 27 weeks is getting worse.
Just 10 days ago, the state labor department reported that the long-term jobless in April represented 56.8 percent of all those searching for work — the highest proportion during the recent recession and its aftermath. The situation is relatively better nationally at 41.3 percent.
“This has been the hardest time I’ve ever gone through,” said Edward Harris, 62, of Cobb County, an accountant and information technology professional. “I know I’ve got skills. I’ve had maybe 15 ‘almost’ opportunities, and then each time the project got pulled. We are living in the second version of the Depression.”
In Sunday’s newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at long-term unemployment. It’s a story you’ll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper’s iPad app. Subscribe today.
