JobsStat

With the current state the of the economy, it’s no surprise that finding a job in Atlanta has gotten increasingly more difficult in the last few months. Between November and December unemployment jumped from 6.9 percent to 7.6 percent. During the same time the national jobless rate was 7.2 percent.

According to the most recent report from Georgia State University’s Economic Forecasting Center, things may not get better until 2011. In the mean time, the situation for those looking for jobs in Atlanta and elsewhere in the state is expected to worsen. Experts are now saying that as many as 143,100 jobs in Georgia could be lost before the end of this year. Of these, approximately 92,200 are expected to be jobs in the Atlanta area.

During the first half of 2010 the report stated that approximately 10,200 Atlanta jobs will be lost. After this period, a small recovery is expected. For the second part of the year employers in the area will create somewhere around 400 jobs, which will bring the city’s job losses to 9,800 for the year. After this Atlanta’s economy will begin to strengthen. In 2011 a total of 34,000 new jobs will be created, if the report is correct.

Because of these job losses the director of Georgia State’s Economic Forecasting Center, Rajeev Dhawan, says that the state’s unemployment rate will climb significantly. During 2009 he expects to percentage of the population in Georgia without work to end up somewhere around 9 percent. The state will continue to see an increase throughout 2010, with the unemployment rate going up to 10.3 percent by the year’s end. Although joblessness is expected to continue to rise in 2011, it is expected to slow down somewhat with the highest rate being 10.5 percent.

Back in November, the center put out a report that stated that collected data indicated that Georgia would begin to recover in 2010. Afterwards unemployment continued to rise, eventually hitting the highest the state has seen in the last 26 years. The rapid acceleration of the decline caused some need for revaluation.

According to Dhawan, leaders of corporations throughout the state have increased their efforts towards reassesses how their companies operate.

“Corporations are in what I call a self-preservation mode, which involves drastic, cost-cutting maneuvers,” said Dhawan, according to MSNBC.com.

Many wonder how President Barack Obama’s stimulus program will affect the area. According to the plan, as much as $6 billion could end up going to help Georgia’s struggling economy. Dhawan feels that they are issues with this plan, such as the fact that if does not properly address the declining revenues that are be affecting local governments throughout the state.

“The finances of state and local governments are taking a big hit with the double whammy of falling retail sales and property tax collections, which has led to layoff announcements from various municipal entities,” said Dhawan in a recent press release. “Unfortunately, the portion of the recently approved stimulus bill directed toward bolstering state finances will temper, but not eliminate this decline.”

Tags: Jobs in Atlanta

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Job Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.