Layoffs up nearly 30% over May 2007, state reports
By MICHAEL E. KANELLThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 06/12/08
It looks like layoffs in Georgia dipped from April to May, but they were still well above the levels of a year ago.
The number of laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment insurance benefits in May fell 13.4 percent from the previous month, mostly because fewer manufacturing firms were cutting jobs, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
However, it was up 29.4 percent from May of last year. That was a larger increase than at the national level.
Anecdotal evidence also paints a portrait of a local labor market that has weakened during the past year, said Emily Carlson, Atlanta district manager for Randstad, the global staffing agency.
One sign of higher layoffs and sluggish hiring is the number of people who come to Randstad hoping to be placed in positions.
"We have seen an increase in the number of people looking for work," she said.
The situation echoes the recession of 2001 and the jobless recovery that followed, she said. "This is not the first time that we have seen an economy like this."
Some sectors, especially manufacturing, have been sliding for a long time. Other sectors that were booming two years ago have soured badly, she said: Hiring for the mortgage industry as well as for construction has dropped along with home sales.
Still, she downplayed the negative talk.
"Companies are still hiring — even when times are tough, companies are still hiring."
Jobs have been plentiful in health care a well as leisure and hospitality. And in an upside that comes with a downturn, hiring has also been strong in credit and collection services are hiring.
Certain kinds of technical skills continue to be in very high demand.
Canvas Systems, a Norcross-based supplier of used information technology equipment, has added ten people this year and expects to hire about 40 before year's end, said Sean Murphy, co-founder and vice president.
"Our company has big growth plans for the next few years," he said.
Canvas is hiring sales staff, but most urgent is the company's search for enterprise architects who can design computer storage, he said.
"Their salaries start about $80,000 and go up. They are really in short supply — there is a shortage."
Yet for the average worker, the picture is not so bright. Hiring seems to have echoed slowing growth in the overall economy.
In Thursday's report for May, the Labor Department counted 44,711 people filing first-time claims, up from May 2007, when only 34,543 workers filed first-time claims.
Those claims are "a good barometer of economic activity" because they are counting people who just lost jobs, according to Michael Thurmond, state labor commissioner.
Another measure: workers who continue to receive jobless benefits. If initial claims say something about layoffs, the continuing claims tell you a bit about how hard it is to get another job.
When jobs are plentiful, the continuing claims figure tends to fall as people quickly find new positions. But when the labor market is weak, workers have trouble finding another job and the number of continuing claims swells.
The total number of people continuing to receive benefits in May was 37.4 percent higher than a year ago. Continuing claims in May were 74,981, up from 54,580 in May 2007.
In metro Atlanta, new jobless claims dipped 4.4 percent from April to May, to 19,249.
Compared with last year, however, Atlanta claims were up 27.5 percent.
Among Georgia metro areas, substantial year-over-year declines came in Albany, where claims fell 19.4 percent, and Gainesville, where claims were down 34.5 percent.
Nationally, initial jobless claims are reported weekly for the week before. Figures issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor showed a 25,000 jump last week to 384,000 new claims.
New claims are averaging about 60,000 higher than a year ago, an increase of 18.5 percent — a slower rate of increase than the latest Georgia figure.
Continuing claims nationally rose 58,000 to 3.14 million people. A year ago, those claims were 2.51 million.
The state's most recent unemployment rate, for April, was 5 percent. The May rate is to be announced next week.
Nationally, the unemployment rate leaped in May from 5 to 5.5 percent — the largest one-month jump in more than two decades, although most economists doubted that there had been a sudden decay.
It looks like layoffs in Georgia dipped from April to May, but they were still well above the levels of a year ago.
The number of laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment insurance benefits in May fell 13.4 percent from the previous month, mostly because fewer manufacturing firms were cutting jobs, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
However, it was up 29.4 percent from May of last year. That was a larger increase than at the national level.
Anecdotal evidence also paints a portrait of a local labor market that has weakened during the past year, said Emily Carlson, Atlanta district manager for Randstad, the global staffing agency.
One sign of higher layoffs and sluggish hiring is the number of people who come to Randstad hoping to be placed in positions.
"We have seen an increase in the number of people looking for work," she said.
The situation echoes the recession of 2001 and the jobless recovery that followed, she said. "This is not the first time that we have seen an economy like this."
Some sectors, especially manufacturing, have been sliding for a long time. Other sectors that were booming two years ago have soured badly, she said: Hiring for the mortgage industry as well as for construction has dropped along with home sales.
Still, she downplayed the negative talk.
"Companies are still hiring — even when times are tough, companies are still hiring."
Jobs have been plentiful in health care a well as leisure and hospitality. And in an upside that comes with a downturn, hiring has also been strong in credit and collection services are hiring.
Certain kinds of technical skills continue to be in very high demand.
Canvas Systems, a Norcross-based supplier of used information technology equipment, has added ten people this year and expects to hire about 40 before year's end, said Sean Murphy, co-founder and vice president.
"Our company has big growth plans for the next few years," he said.
Canvas is hiring sales staff, but most urgent is the company's search for enterprise architects who can design computer storage, he said.
"Their salaries start about $80,000 and go up. They are really in short supply — there is a shortage."
Yet for the average worker, the picture is not so bright. Hiring seems to have echoed slowing growth in the overall economy.
In Thursday's report for May, the Labor Department counted 44,711 people filing first-time claims, up from May 2007, when only 34,543 workers filed first-time claims.
Those claims are "a good barometer of economic activity" because they are counting people who just lost jobs, according to Michael Thurmond, state labor commissioner.
Another measure: workers who continue to receive jobless benefits. If initial claims say something about layoffs, the continuing claims tell you a bit about how hard it is to get another job.
When jobs are plentiful, the continuing claims figure tends to fall as people quickly find new positions. But when the labor market is weak, workers have trouble finding another job and the number of continuing claims swells.
The total number of people continuing to receive benefits in May was 37.4 percent higher than a year ago. Continuing claims in May were 74,981, up from 54,580 in May 2007.
In metro Atlanta, new jobless claims dipped 4.4 percent from April to May, to 19,249.
Compared with last year, however, Atlanta claims were up 27.5 percent.
Among Georgia metro areas, substantial year-over-year declines came in Albany, where claims fell 19.4 percent, and Gainesville, where claims were down 34.5 percent.
Nationally, initial jobless claims are reported weekly for the week before. Figures issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor showed a 25,000 jump last week to 384,000 new claims.
New claims are averaging about 60,000 higher than a year ago, an increase of 18.5 percent — a slower rate of increase than the latest Georgia figure.
Continuing claims nationally rose 58,000 to 3.14 million people. A year ago, those claims were 2.51 million.
The state's most recent unemployment rate, for April, was 5 percent. The May rate is to be announced next week.
Nationally, the unemployment rate leaped in May from 5 to 5.5 percent — the largest one-month jump in more than two decades, although most economists doubted that there had been a sudden decay.
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