Local & State Headlines

Albany's jobless rate is up

• Unemployment in metro Albany was at 5.1 percent in December.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — Unemployment in metro Albany spiked five-tenths of a percent in December, trailing a statewide four-tenths of a percent increase that Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond noted was the largest increase for the period in three decades.

“The magnitude of the November to December increase is troubling,” Thurmond said in a statement. “This represents the largest statewide increase for that time period in over 30 years.”

With the increase, unemployment in the five-county Albany metro area rose to 5.1 percent in December. Job losses in manufacturing, construction and some service industries increased the state unemployment rate to 4.6 percent, the Georgia Department of Labor reported.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate is 4.8 percent.

The hike is notable because the November to December period typically experiences a small rise, said John Lawrence, Assistant Division Director with the Labor Department.

“Slowing job growth hurt the labor force as Albany added to the size of its labor force, but unemployment dropped at the same time,” Lawrence said in a statement.

Metro Albany, which added 500 jobs from October to November, showed a net decrease of 100 jobs, or two-tenths of a percent, from November to December.

In the labor department’s Southwest Georgia district, unemployment also spiked five-tenths of a percent, from 4.5 percent in November to 5 percent in December.

While they have emotional appeal, monthly unemployment statistics have a high margin of error, especially at local levels, said Jeff Humphreys, Director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

“There’s a lot of noise in these monthly numbers,” Humphreys said. “What is of value is a trend, when you start to see it going on steadily for several months. That’s a warning sign.”

During 2007, unemployment in metro Albany hit a low of 4.5 percent in March, rose steadily to a high of 5.5 percent in July then dipped again in August and November before making the December rise to 5.1 percent, according to labor department data.

Albany showed positive job growth during 2007, said Humphreys, who will speak about economic conditions in Albany and Southwest Georgia at Wednesday’s Economic Outlook 2008 conference at the Hilton Garden Inn.

“I do think the unemployment rate is going to rise. I don’t think the increase from November to December is indicative of how the unemployment rate is going to rise,” Humphreys said.

Housing and related industries, even in metro Albany, continue to lose jobs, but “the rest of the economy is in not that bad of shape,” he said.

While the urban agriculture industry has been gutted by drought, production agriculture has benefited in 2007 from very high commodity prices driven by a strong global economy, he said.

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