State Jobless Rate, Bartow Initial Claims Spike

The jobless rate in Georgia has jumped 3 tenths of a percentage point to 9.3 percent from June to July, says the .

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a press release the culprit for the spike was a large number of temporary manufacturing sector layoffs, but many of those workers have returned to work already.

First time claims for unemployment insurance jumped by more than 15 percent from June, but are still 8.2 percent below the number of claims from this time last year.

Bartow County’s in June, up from 8.9 percent in May, but down from and 10.2 percent in June 2011.

Initial claims for unemployment in Bartow rose 73.2 percent in July—to 930 from 537 in June. They increased 46.2 percent since July of last year, when there were 636.

Statewide, the labor force grew for the 14th time in 15 months, but the number of available jobs decreased due to the end of seasonal and temporary work in the state. There are still some 50,000 more jobs than were reported at this time in 2011.

The long-term unemployed, who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks and make up 51 percent of all unemployed in the state, dropped by 4,700 from June to July. There has been a 10.2 decline in long-term unemployment from July 2011 to July 2012.

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