The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is providing stimulus money to weatherize homes, which will not only help create Atlanta construction jobs, but will help needy residents as well.

The Clarkston-based Partnership for Community Action is expecting to receive $8 million in grants during the next three years, according to an article by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The money should help the organization increase the number of homes it weatherizes in DeKalb and three other counties from 240 a year to almost 700 a year.

The stimulus legislation increased the income threshold for free weatherization services to twice the poverty level, up from 125 percent. That means a family of four must make less than $44,100 to qualify for aid up to $6,000.

(more…)

One well-known company has eliminated a “small amount” of Atlanta media jobs. Click here to see more Atlanta media jobs.

Turner Broadcasting System Inc. recently announced that it cut about 30 jobs at Turner Studios, the company’s in-house production unit based in Atlanta. The company previously had a total of 450 employees at Turner Studios. Turner Broadcasting system is a unit of Time Warner Inc., according to an article by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

“We have eliminated a small number of jobs at Turner Studios as part of our ordinary course of business and evaluation of the resources needed to support our in-house businesses,” the company said in a statement. “We are working closely with impacted individuals to provide them with all of the transition support at our disposal.”

(more…)

Many workers are worried about the future of their Atlanta transportation jobs.

Officials at MARTA, Atlants’s public transportation system, are currently facing a $24 million budget. One option to close that gap would be cutting service to six days a week. However, workers are worried that move would make it too hard for MARTA to stand as their full-time, and also would reduce tourism and convention traffic in the city.

According to an article by The Associated Press, MARTA recently asked the state Legislature to pass a bill that would allow them to use capital reserves in order to continue operating seven days a week. Despite MARTA’s request, lawmakers finished their recent session without approving the legislation.

(more…)

More people were without Atlanta careers during February.

Georgia’s unemployment rate came in at 9.3 percent during February, according to the state Department of Labor, up from 8.6 during January and more than double the 4.1 percent unemployment rate the state saw in 2008. Of the state’s 159 counties, 87 have unemployment rates of 10 percent or more, while 32 counties have unemployment rates of at least 9 percent.

“The latest local unemployment rates reflect the severity of the ongoing recession in Georgia,” State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said in an article by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

(more…)