In recent years, I’ve been paying really close attention in this column to the local and state unemployment statistics.
During the early years of the recovery from the recent recession, which officially ended almost five years ago, we saw weak employment growth across the country. The employment rebound in Georgia was especially anemic.
We are still seeing an uneven recovery across Georgia, but employment here in the Savannah metro area has been strong for many months.
And that continued in March.
According to the Georgia Department of Labor, there were 852 initial claims for unemployment insurance in the Savannah metro area (Chatham, Effingham and Bryan counties) last month. That was down dramatically from 1,261 in March 2014.
The number of payroll jobs in Georgia was 3.1 percent higher in March 2015 than in March 2014. Private sector employment actually increased 3.5 percent.
Metro Savannah employment increased a whopping 4.9 percent over the past year – and 5.7 percent for the private sector.
As I’ve noted before, we won’t continue to see such dramatic year-to-year gains. Eventually the job growth numbers will track more closely with population growth.
The hospitality sector has continued to show strong job growth, but other areas are doing well too, including manufacturing, construction, trade, transportation and business services.
It’s certainly good news to see such broad-based gains.
The statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in March was 6.3 percent. That’s down from 7.3 percent in March 2014.
Savannah metro area unemployment was 5.8 percent in March, considerably lower than the state rate and significantly lower than the 7.4 percent rate in March 2015. (Metro area unemployment estimates are not adjusted for seasonality, but March is a pretty average month.)
The only cautionary note that I see in the most recent data is a relatively small increase in the size of the civilian labor force.
The household survey, which is used to determine the unemployment rate and other labor force estimates, can be noisy from month to month, so the increase of about 0.5 percent in the size of the labor force might just be a statistical blip. Still, I’ll be keeping an eye on it.
As I’ve noted here before, employment continues to lag in many of Georgia’s lightly populated areas. The unemployment rate is 7 percent or higher in 69 of the state’s 159 counties.
Consider Screven County, which is just up the road a piece. The unemployment rate in March was 8.2 percent, down dramatically from 10.3 percent in March 2014.
But the decline in Screven County’s unemployment rate was entirely attributable to a shrinking labor force. That’s a tough trend to reverse, especially when so many of the state’s metro areas are thriving.
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.