Atlanta Job Loss Accounts for Majority of State’s
The jobs in Atlanta that were lost during July account for the majority of job losses throughout the State of Georgia. To learn more visit http://www.atlantajobs.com.
The United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that during July, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta area saw its unemployment rate increase from 10.6 percent to 10.7 percent.
The metro Atlanta area has an estimated 288,561 unemployed workers, a 60 percent increase from last year, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The overall number could be much worse, as those working part-time, going to school or who have given up are not taken into account when calculating that number.
Even so, Atlanta currently accounts for about 60 percent of the 199,400 jobs lost in Georgia during the last 12 months. Unfortunately for Atlanta, jobs are still being lost in residential real estate, commercial construction, hospitality and transportation-related jobs.
However, Atlanta does not haev the worst unemployment rate in the state. For instance, Dalton saw its unemployment rate increase to 13.2 percent during July. On the other hand, Warner Robins had an unemployment rate of only 7.6 percent during July. Oconee County has the lowest unemployment rate, at 6.5 percent, while Jenkins County has the highest, at 21.7 percent.
Atlanta’s unemployment rate has been higher than the overall state unemployment rate, which came in at 10.3 percent during July. That rate, however, is higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent.
Experts say that the unemployment rate is likely to continue to increase before it begins to decline, as joblessness typically rises until the end of a recession, and often times for many months afterward. And even though some say the recession has already ended, none have said layoffs are over.
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