March 2012
Cherokee Tribune
Megan Thornton

If it seems that more people have a job these days, that perception just might be right.

Though Cherokee County’s unemployment rate saw a slight rise in January over the adjusted rate for December, it was considerably down from last year at the same time, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

Cherokee also continues to maintain the lowest unemployment rate in the metro Atlanta area, with Gwinnett County coming in second at 8 percent.

The Department of Labor said Georgia gained 83,700 jobs within the past 12 months, the biggest growth in the state since 2006.

January saw a jobless rate of 7.6 percent for Cherokee County, according to preliminary figures released Thursday. This is an increase from an adjusted rate of 7.4 percent in December, but a decrease from 8.7 percent in January 2011.

Last year was a better year for county employment than initially projected, as the preliminary rate for December was 7.9 percent, bringing the revised December figure down a half-point. Bland Odell, owner of Express Employment Professionals in Woodstock, said he believes local businesses are feeling encouraged, but are still extremely leery of committing new employees to their payroll.

“I think employers are much more willing to look at part-time, temporary (employment) to bring people on board,” Odell said.

He added that he has heard many business owners say they feel business is turning around and are willing to hire more people.
The January job data was not released until this week because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the state agency recently completed an annual benchmarking to ensure more accurate reporting.

Other area unemployment rates include Bartow at 9.9 percent, Clayton at 11.6 percent, Cobb at 8.4 percent, DeKalb at 9.6 percent, Douglas at 9.6 percent, Fayette at 8.1 percent, Fulton at 9.9 percent, Henry at 9.1 percent, Paulding at 8.6 percent and Rockdale at 10.3 percent.

The labor force in Cherokee slightly decreased to 113,223 from 113,454 in December, a marked increase from 111,439 in January a year ago. Employed individuals in the county also went down slightly to 104,599 from 105,011 last month, an increase from 101,712 in January 2011. The number of unemployed people in the county went up slightly to 8,624 from 8,443 last month, a marked decrease from 9,727 a year ago.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for metro Atlanta rose from a revised 8.9 percent in December to 9.2 percent in January. The rate is a decrease from 10.3 percent a year ago.

The metro rate increased because of layoffs in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, transportation, warehousing, and administrative and support services, according to the state agency.

Statewide, the unemployment rate decreased for the six months in a row from 9.4 percent in December to 9.2 percent in January, down from 10.1 percent in January a year ago. From December to January, about 13,000 more Georgians were employed.

The largest increases were seen in professional and business services with 37,000 new jobs, followed by retail trade with 15,100 new jobs, health care and social assistance with 11,100, and manufacturing with 7,300.

Odell said he has also seen a lot of growth recently in manufacturing and administrative fields in the Cherokee area.

Georgia’s rate was also above the national rate of 8.3 percent in January, down from 8.5 percent in December and 9.1 percent in January 2011.