July jobless claims down by double digits in Floyd County
♦ However, the rate of new filings is more than 500% higher than a year ago.
While the number of new claims for unemployment assistance continues to fall across Northwest Georgia, they remain staggeringly higher than a year ago.
Residents of the 15-county region filed 34,319 new claims for jobless benefits in July, down 15% from June. But that’s still 968% higher than July of last year.
Residents of Floyd County filed 4,292 new claims in July. Those are people who had not filed for unemployment benefits in the preceding 12 months. It was a decline of 12.9% from June but still 552% more than July 2019.
The Georgia Department of Labor also reported that companies with payrolls that are based in Floyd County reported 41,400 jobs in July. That was down by 600 jobs from June and down 400 jobs from July a year ago.
Retired Georgia Highlands College economics professor Bruce Jones said that some of the jobs that were lost to COVID-19 came back while the federal CARES Act money lasted, but many will fall by the wayside again in the future.
He used Delta Airlines as an example, saying the airline has given 3,000 pilots the opportunity to retire early but really needs to double that number.
“They got money to run through the end of September but I’m guessing that in October and November they’re going to say ‘I gave you the opportunity to retire, now I’m going to fire you,’” Jones said.
“Think about a restaurant,” he added. “They’re allowed to run about 50% (capacity) so, obviously, they’re not going to need as many people as they did.”
Some employees were bought back with Payroll Protection Program money but Jones fears that if another wave of COVID-19 were to hit, a lot of those job cuts will be repeated.
Jeanne Krueger, president of the Rome Floyd Chamber, said the job losses reported in July is cause for concern.
“I think we’re going to continue to see some volatility until things level out a little bit,” Krueger said. “It’s all consumer driven, but we are seeing small business start-ups and we know that’s good.”
Krueger said the number of job postings on the chamber website continues to increase, so there are opportunities available locally.
Bartow County saw the number of new claims fall 2% to 5,253 in July while Whitfield County experienced a 9.8% decline that still produced 6,307 new claims last month.
Polk County was down 17.4% from June, Chattooga was down 10.4% in July and Walker County was off 0.8%.