Unemployment rates in Fayette and Coweta counties remain among the lowest in west central Georgia. But that did not stop the jobless rate from taking a pretty big step in the wrong direction in June.
Data supplied by the Ga. Dept. of Labor showed the unemployment rate for Coweta increasing by nearly a full percentage point in June while in Fayette the rate increased more than half a percentage point.
Coweta’s jobless rate for June was 9 percent, up from 8.1 percent in May and just under the 9.2 percent rate in June 2011. The June figures represent 5,770 people out of work in a workforce of 63,903.
Next door in Fayette County, the 7.8 percent rate in May headed north to 8.4 percent in June. Fayette’s jobless rate in June 2011 was 8.6 percent. The county’s unemployment rate for June represents 4,473 people out of work in a workforce that totals 53,469.
The rise in the unemployment rates in the largest cities in both counties mirrored the countywide increases. Peachtree City’s jobless rate in June came in at 7.8 percent, up from the 7.2 percent rate in May and higher than the 7.6 percent a year ago.
And in Newnan, the 9.4 percent jobless rate in May turned into a 10.2 percent rate in June. Newnan’s unemployment rate in June 2011 was 9.7 percent.
Jobless numbers in the 10-county Three Rivers Commission area that includes Coweta also took a hit in June with a rate of 10.6 percent. The rate in May was 9.4 percent.
And in the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission area that includes Fayette, unemployment figures rose from 8.6 percent in May to 9.3 percent in June.
Statewide, the unadjusted unemployment rate for June was 9.6 percent. That compares to the 8.8 percent rate in May and the 10.3 percent rate a year ago.
And nationwide, the unadjusted rate was 8.4 percent, up from 7.9 percent in May but lower than the 9.3 percent rate in June 2011.
There is another facet to the unemployment equation that The Citizen often reports on. It is one that state and federal governments customarily fail to mention. It is the underemployment rate – the number of people unemployed combined with the number of people working part-time but looking for full-time employment.
Tracked by Gallup, that figure for June came in at 17.5 percent of the country’s workforce. The June figure represented a decrease from the 18 percent rate in May.
