I’ve reported routinely on the stagnating job market in Georgia generally and Savannah specifically.
The jobs data has been getting gloomier of late, and today’s release of October data from the Georgia Department of Labor is pretty disturbing.
The Savannah metro area lost 2,000 jobs compared to a year ago, according to the data (not adjusted for seasonality) from the DOL.
Here’s the updated graph:
The slow bleed continues statewide as well:
The state has lost 11,000 private sector jobs in the past year, and 21,600 government jobs (11,500 at the local level, 10,000 at the state level). The Savannah metro area lost 2,000 private jobs in that time, while the number of government jobs has remained steady.
The seasonally adjusted employment rate for the state fell very slightly to 10.2%. The local unemployment rate will be updated in another week or so. The number of initial claims for unemployment continues to moderate, but the levels are still high enough that they indicate widespread economic weakness.
This is another really weak report.