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Barrow County is the yellow.
On the statewide map charting the preliminary unemployment rate for May, Barrow County and neighboring Jackson County, are colored in with yellow, indicating the jobless rate has topped 10 percent.
For Barrow, the unemployment rate was 10.7 for May while Jackson’s rate was slightly lower at 10.1 percent.
Barrow and Jackson are among the 81 of Georgia’s 159 counties with unemployment rates at 10 percent or higher.
Twenty percent of the counties across the state have jobless rates between 9 percent and 9.9 percent.
Only 21 counties report unemployment rates of less than 8 percent.
The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) reported Thursday that the preliminary unadjusted unemployment rate in the Northeast Georgia area rose to 9.2 percent in May, up three-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 8.9 percent in April.
The jobless rate is also up in the metro Athens area — to 6.9 percent in May, compared to 6.7 percent in April.
The upward trend was also evident in the Georgia Mountains area where the preliminary unadjusted unemployment rate was 9.2 percent in May, up five-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 8.7 percent in April.In the metro Atlanta area rose, the jobless percentage was 9.6 percent in May, up six-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 9.0 percent in April.
Meanwhile, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent in May, the highest rate ever recorded in Georgia. The jobless rate was up five-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 9.2 percent in April.
The increased number of unemployed workers in May included many discouraged workers who reentered the labor force. Last month, 463,883 unemployed Georgians were looking for work, an increase of 62 percent from May of 2008. Of that number, 157,544, or 34 percent, are receiving state unemployment insurance benefits, while approximately another 90,000 are receiving federal extended benefits.
The May jobless rate was up 3.8 percentage points from 5.9 percent at this same time last year. Georgia’s unemployment rate remained above the national rate of 9.4 percent for the 19th consecutive month. The statewide number of payroll jobs in May decreased 217,000, or 5.2 percent, from May of 2008.
Many long-term unemployed Georgians may be eligible for up to 20 weeks of State Extended Benefits (SEB), if they have exhausted regular state unemployment insurance benefits (UI) and the first and second tiers of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits. The exhaustions must have occurred on or after Feb. 15. Individuals who are eligible for SEB must apply, either online or at a labor department career center.
With Barrow County government’s recent layoff of 18 employees, the Georgia Department of Labor had personnel available at the Winder Community Center with other resources assembled by Barrow County’s HR Department to assist those employees with their transition.
With paperwork completed, those employees were to be receiving their compensation within a week of their June 17 filing date.
The layoffs were effective June 15.
