Fresh Loaf

Downtown Atlanta job fair

Good morning! The most recent unemployment numbers are in and they’re terrible.

Georgia’s unemployment rate rose to a record high of 9.7 percent in May, the Georgia Department of Labor says, up from 9.2 percent the previous month. May was the 19th consecutive month the state’s unemployment rate hovered above the national average.

“Georgia’s record unemployment rate of 9.7 percent is a stark reminder that the road to economic recovery will be long and difficult,” state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said in a press release.

According to the department, nearly 463,883 unemployed Georgians were looking for work in May, an increase of 62 percent from the same time last year. Of that number, 157,544 are receiving state unemployment insurance benefits. Approximately another 90,000 are receiving federal extended benefits.

The state saw a loss of 217,000 jobs in May. Of that number, 136,800 jobs were in Metro Atlanta. Dalton continues to be battered by the economy, posting the highest percentage loss in jobs. Atlanta Magazine’s Thomas Lake recently wrote an excellent piece about the North Georgia carpet town’s woes that’s worth a read.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark It

Those nifty contrarians at Slate, God bless ‘em, have gone through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and made a fun and depressing animation of a heady few months of job gains followed by a blood-red pattern of job loss. The animation, which covers January 2007 to February 2009, provides some much-needed context to the headlines and numbers we’ve seen thrown about.

It’s interesting to watch how metropolitan regions went from blue to red. Not surprising, sure, as this is where the bulk of people live. But notice the areas where jobs grew. I heard an interesting rumor while reporting for the Green Guide that laid-off workers in Florida’s manufacturing industry were migrating north into south Georgia to look for jobs. You don’t see much of that in this animation, or you don’t see if they landed work, but it’d be interesting to also plug migration data into this map.

And look at that little blue dot along the Mid-Atlantic. That’s Washington, D.C., people! Or at least I think it is! Regardless, socialism! Government job programs! Big Government blah blah blah! (Click the screenshot to head to Slate’s site and watch the animation.)

(Screenshot from Slate)

Bookmark It

Number of counties in Georgia: 159

Number of Georgia counties with an unemployment rate in the double digits, as of March 25: 87

Percentage of working-age Americans who are jobless: 8.1

Percentage of working-age Georgians who are jobless: 9.3

Percentage of working-age Georgians who were jobless this time last year: 5.4

Number of consecutive months Georgia’s unemployment rate has been higher than the national average: 16

Jenkins County’s jobless rate (in percentage), the state’s highest: 21.3

Oconee County’s jobless rate, the state’s lowest: 6

Number of Georgians unemployed and looking for work: 445,500

Sources: Georgia Department of Labor, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Capitol Impact

Bookmark It

1. Atlanta job fair at Georgia World Congress Center (If this post had attracted thousands of visits a few years back, I’d have laughed to myself and said, “What next? Creative Loafing declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy?” Hahahahaha.)

2. Soapbox: Jekyll Island Authority ‘at it again’ (At 239 comments and counting, the Jekyll post is encroaching on Black Mafia Family territory. A JIA v. BMF beef? Scary.)

3. AJC layoffs: this week or next (I’m not going to make a snide remark about the abovementioned job fair. This economy is no place for snide remarks.)

4. Georgia mayor’s Facebook page confuses nation (How easy it is to offend with a can of Schlitz and a pack of Camels!)

5. Sneak peek: Creative Loafing’s website makeover (The euphoria of making our own top-five list is only slightly diminished by the fact that most commenters trashed our makeover. Meanies.)

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark It

Thousands of people lined up for an Atlanta Federal Center Career Fair at 100 Alabama Street in downtown Atlanta this morning to get information about federal jobs being offered by over two dozen federal agencies. According to police, people started forming lines at 6 a.m. even though the job fair did not start until 10 a.m.

An unemployed man who asked not to be identified said he had been waiting for more than three hours to go inside. When asked what type of job he was looking for, he replied, “Right now, whatever is available.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark It

Brooke and Solomon are too young to remember a recession as bad as this one’s likely to get. But, over the last year, the Cobb County couple has gotten an up-close preview.

“We always talk about how we never thought we’d be in this predicament,” says Brooke, who lives with her husband and two babies in a $945-a-month apartment in Marietta.

Last year, the couple moved from Texas. For a time, they rented out the house they owned back in Beaumont. But the tenants moved out and the house sat empty. With gas prices rising, the second baby on the way and rent to pay in Atlanta, Solomon’s job on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig didn’t provide enough to also carry the mortgage. They fell behind.

Then, in January, just after the birth of their second son, Solomon’s rig shut down, and he had to go to work for another oil-services company. His pay dropped from $18 to $13 an hour. The bank foreclosed on the house in Texas. Bills began to pile up.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark It