Metro Savannah’s unemployment rate decreased to 6.8 percent in November, its lowest point since December 2008, the state labor department announced Thursday.
The non-seasonally adjusted rate was eight-tenths of a percentage point lower than it was a year ago at 7.6 percent.
Georgia’s labor department attributed the decrease to modest job growth and a drop in the number of new layoffs, represented by initial claims for unemployment insurance.
Metro Savannah’s employers added 500 jobs from October to November, for a total of 160,000, a .3 percent increase over the year. Most of those new jobs were in retail, trade, leisure and hospitality, education and health care.
Meanwhile, the number of new layoffs decreased to 1,157, about 240 fewer than last year. There are a total of 12,059 unemployed people in the Savannah area, 1,864 less than in November 2012.
In the larger Coastal Georgia region — Bryan, Chatham, Effingham and seven surrounding counties — the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent in November from 8.3 in October. The rate was 8.2 in November of last year.
Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 5.1 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 10 percent.
Last week, the labor department announced that Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November was 7.7 percent, a full percentage point lower than in November a year ago.
Long-term jobless benefits ending
Separately, the department warned that federally funded jobless benefits for long-term unemployed Georgians will expire on Saturday.
Officials said 39,559 long-term unemployed will lose their Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits, unless Congress intervenes and passes an extension. These benefits are offered to unemployed workers who have exhausted their state benefits. The average weekly benefit is $253.
Ben McKay, an economic research specialist with Georgia Southern University, described the effect this will have as a Catch-22.
“Overall it will lower the unemployment rate by pushing people out of the labor force,” said McKay. “But it also creates a drag because if they all drop out, they won’t be actively seeking work — and all the experience they have is gone.”
McKay said the other impact may be that these people rejoin the workforce in lower-skill service jobs, for example, rather than hold out for something in their field.
In Georgia, a person can receive state benefits for a maximum of 18 weeks. However, a person who’s established a claim for benefits and who’s qualified for the maximum amount could receive benefits up to 42 weeks with the emergency benefits. The first 18 weeks would consist of regular state benefits and the remainder from the federal program.
“It definitely is a period of modest job growth with some good signs for recovery over the long run,” said McKay. “But we’re going to have some short-term bumps in terms of these people who are now out of benefits.”