The roller-coaster ride called unemployment just hit its highest point in Fayette County in more than two decades. The 9.3 percent jobless rate in June is the highest seen here since 1990. Peachtree City in June also saw a large jump in the jobless rate.
Fayette County’s 9.3 percent rate in June compared to the 8.1 percent rate in May and an 8.7 percent rate in June 2010, according to the Georgia Dept. of Labor. The June rate represents 4,667 people out of work in a workforce of 50,446 people.
The June unemployment rate is the highest since 1990 and represents only the third time in the past two decades when the jobless level has exceeded 9 percent. The first time was in January 2010 when the rate hit 9.2 percent and in February 2010 when it came in at 9.1 percent, according to www.finance-data.com that tracks Ga. DOL and the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
The jobless rate in Peachtree City also saw a large increase in June. The May rate of 7.1 percent shot up to 8.2 percent in June, representing 1,329 people out of work in a workforce of 16,094. Peachtree City’s unemployment rate was 7.7 in June 2010.
Employment across the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission area climbed into double digits again, reaching 10.4 percent in June and equating to 222,440 people out of work. Unemployment in the ARC area was 9.6 percent in May and 10.5 percent in June 2010.
Similarly, the 28-county Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area had a June jobless rate of 10.5 percent, up from 9.7 percent in May and 10.3 percent a year ago.
The jobless rate in Georgia hit 10.5 percent in June, figures that are not seasonally adjusted. That compares to a 9.7 percent rate in May and a rate of 10.3 percent in June 2010.
Eighteen of Georgia’s 159 counties have a jobless rate of 14 percent or higher while 44 counties have a rate of 12-13.9 percent.
The jobless picture across the United States in June showed a rate of 9.3 percent that translates into 14.4 million people out of work.
Far from the full picture, unemployment figures presented each month are not the entire story when it comes to meeting a family’s financial obligations. A measure not tracked by state and federal labor departments is an underemployment condition that arises when a person wants full-time work but can only find part-time employment. Gallup in mid-June tallied the national underemployment rate at 9.4 percent on top of the 9.3 unemployment rate — meaning an effective unemployment rate of more than 18 percent, a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
