"We're

pleased that unemployment remains low," said Thurmond, "but

there are some troubling aspects of our employment picture. A shortage

of highly-skilled and well-trained workers, such as nurses and technicians

in health care, as well as math and science teachers, continues to be

a problem. I'm also concerned that the Federal Reserve's decision to raise

interest rates to keep inflation under control might result in too much

of a slowdown in our economy. The latest job figures appear to suggest

that this might be occurring."

While Georgia

added 15,600 new jobs during August, bringing its total to 4,009,800,

the latest figures from the Georgia Department of Labor show a slowing

in the state's annualized job growth rate over the past six months. The

annualized job growth rate has declined from 4.2 percent in March to 2.5

percent in August, a drop of 40 percent. In absolute numbers, 161,400

jobs were added between March 1999 and March 2000, while only 97,600 were

added between August 1999 and August 2000.

Even with the

slowdown in job growth, the state's workforce has not continued to keep

pace with the increase in jobs. For example, in the past year, the state's

civilian labor force increased by 88,115, or 2.2 percent, while jobs are

up by 97,600, or 2.5 percent.

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