Georgia’s Jobless Rate Jumps to 9.3 percent in July

The news on the jobs front for Georgia coming out of the Georgia Department of Labor Thursday indicated the state is not yet moving in the right direction. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 9.3 percent in July, which is up from 9.0 percent in June. It is however, better than it was at 10 percent a year ago.

“One of the main reasons for the increase in the unemployment rate was a large number of temporary layoffs in manufacturing,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in the release, “but many of those people have already gone back to work.”

There were 56,540 first-time claims reported for unemployment insurance benefits in July. This was up 7,661, or 15.7 percent, from last month. Most of the increase reportedly came from temporary manufacturing layoffs. This was, however, a drop of 8.2 percent from first time claims a year ago.

The state reported an increase in the labor force by 7,731 new jobseekers in July, bringing the labor force up to 4,765,132 in July. The state’s labor force has reportedly increased for 14 of the past 15 months. Jobs, however, dropped from 9,931,900 last month to 3,914,000 in July. Of that, 20,600 were jobs lost among seasonal workers in local public schools, offset by 5,600 jobs added in the private sector.

The state DOL reports that yearly growth of 29,300 was in professional and business, 18,400 in trade, transportation and warehousing, 8,000 in education and healthcare, 3,600 in manufacturing and 2,100 in leisure and hospitality and 2,100. The long-term unemployed (out of work for more than 26 weeks) account for 51 percent of those unemployed in Georgia.