We have some positive economic trends in the Savannah metropolitan area, but we have yet to see any significant momentum in terms of employment.
The stagnant labor market was one of the big local stories of 2013. Let’s hope it won’t be one of the big stories of 2014.
Claims for unemployment insurance spiked in December in several of Georgia’s metro areas, including Savannah.
There were 1,820 initial unemployment claims in Chatham, Effingham and Bryan counties in December. That’s up pretty dramatically from the 1,436 claims in December 2012.
More than 3,000 area residents filed unemployment claims in December 2008, one of the worst months of the recession, but there were fewer than 1,000 claims in December 2007.
A variety of factors could have contributed to the recent spike in layoffs, including slower than expected holiday sales, inclement weather, the timing of the holidays, the ongoing impacts of federal budget sequestration and fears about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
But, really, it’s hard to say.
According to the ongoing survey of establishments, the Savannah metro area had 158,800 nonfarm payroll jobs in December, up a measly 300 from a year earlier. We probably need to be adding more than 1,500 jobs per year just to keep pace with population growth.
Savannah is not the only area seeing weak job growth. The job market is apparently booming in Atlanta and doing fine in a few other Georgia cities, but several metro areas in the state are seeing stagnant or falling employment, including Augusta, Brunswick, Dalton, Hinesville, Valdosta and Warner Robins.
The data from the Atlanta metro area are so good right now that the entire state ends up looking good if you don’t break the numbers down by metro area.
As we have seen in recent months, only a couple of employment sectors are showing relatively strong growth. In 2013, the Savannah metro area added 900 jobs in retail trade and 600 jobs in leisure and hospitality.
But, over the course of 2013, we lost 500 federal government jobs, 300 local government jobs, 400 jobs in the sector that includes construction and 200 jobs in manufacturing.
Employment is a lagging indicator of economic conditions. So good economic news might not translate into new hires for many months.
But by most measures, the Savannah metro area economy has been growing steadily for about four years now. We should definitely be seeing better news for the local labor market.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.