Jobless rate hits record 13.5% for Floyd County
♦ The Georgia Department of Labor says about 4,000 more residents are without jobs.
The unemployment rate in Floyd County soared to an all-time high of 13.5% in April, according to the new data from the Georgia Department of Labor.
The economic impact of COVID-19 in April showed Floyd Countybased employers listing some 40,000 workers on their payrolls, down 2,100 from this March.
The breakdown shows a loss of 1,700 jobs in the service industry sector along with a decline of 400 in retail trade and 300 in manufacturing.
When considering Floyd residents who lost jobs in April, the numbers go even higher.
The Department of Labor reported that 38,427 Rome and Floyd County residents were employed, either in or outside the county. That number was down by 4,030 from March and down by 3,755 when compared to April 2019.
Missy Kendrick, president of the Rome-floyd County Development Authority, said she was not completely surprised by the April jobless rate increase.
“The last time we talked, we spoke about the possibility of it going up pretty sharply,”
Kendrick said.
She said she is very confident the unemployment rate will fall but would not speculate how far or how fast.
“Looking at it from an optimistic side of things, having a workforce that is looking for jobs is a bonus when it comes to recruitment,” Kendrick said.
The low unemployment rate that Rome and most of Northwest Georgia have enjoyed for the last year created its own unique challenge as it relates to being able to provide a workforce for new industry.
“Although we are seeing all-time high unemployment rates across a majority of the state, we are continuing to work with employers on effective strategies to get Georgians back to work in both a safe and economically efficient way,” said Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler in a press release.
Kendrick said one of the unfortunate aspects of the situation right now is that there is no way of knowing how many of the job cuts are permanent versus temporary.
“We just don’t have any way of knowing that until
this passes,” Kendrick said.
Another issue about how fast that recovery comes involves supplements to unemployment payments from COVID-19 assistance. There have been reports of people declining to return to work because their combined benefits brought home as much as or more than they earned while working.
Overall, the 15-county Northwest Georgia region checked in with a 13.3% jobless rate in April, up from 4.3% in March.
Whitfield County led the region with a 20.6% unemployment rate in April. Chattooga County came in at 17.1%, Bartow at 14.8%, Gordon at 12.7%, Polk at 11.9% and Walker County at 10.9%.