Wednesday, October 4, 2000
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Wednesday, October 4, 2000 |
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County's unemployment heads down State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said today that the unemployment rate in the metro Atlanta area remained unchanged at 3.1 percent from July to August. The area's jobless rate was 3.2 percent in August of 1999. While Georgia continued to add new jobs in August, the state's annualized rate of job growth has slowed by 40 percent in the past six months. Although the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 percent from July to August, it was down from 4.1 percent in August of 1999. "We're pleased that unemployment remains low," said Thurmond, "but there are some troubling aspects of our employment picture. A shortage of highly-skilled and well-trained workers, such as nurses and technicians in health care, as well as math and science teachers, continues to be a problem. I'm also concerned that the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates to keep inflation under control might result in too much of a slowdown in our economy. The latest job figures appear to suggest that this might be occurring." While Georgia added 15,600 new jobs during August, bringing its total to 4,009,800, the latest figures from the Georgia Department of Labor show a slowing in the state's annualized job growth rate over the past six months. The annualized job growth rate has declined from 4.2 percent in March to 2.5 percent in August, a drop of 40 percent. In absolute numbers, 161,400 jobs were added between March 1999 and March 2000, while only 97,600 were added between August 1999 and August 2000. Even with the slowdown in job growth, the state's workforce has not continued to keep pace with the increase in jobs. For example, in the past year, the state's civilian labor force increased by 88,115, or 2.2 percent, while jobs are up by 97,600, or 2.5 percent. |