Jobless rate continues to fall from April record high report
♦ But the Floyd County workforce is still down 1,100 compared to a year ago.
Floyd County’s unemployment rate continues a steady retreat from a coronavirus related all-time high of 13.2% in April.
The June jobless rate released Thursday by the Georgia Department of Labor registered a preliminary 7%. That’s down from the adjusted May rate of 8.9%. A year ago, the jobless rate in Rome was 4.9%.
Rome-based payrolls ended June with 42,000 jobs. That was a gain of 1,100 jobs from May to June and was up by 200 when compared to this time last year. It is important to note that those jobs are not necessarily filled by Floyd County residents.
Rome Floyd Chamber President Jeanne Krueger said the chamber is seeing the number of job listings on its web page increase fairly steadily.
“We’re having more conversations about workforce development and I know many are hiring back,” Krueger said.
She added that some of the manufacturers who are not back into full production are still being impacted by issues up the supply chain.
“They are dependent on what facilities in other states are doing because they may supply parts to those plants,” Krueger said. “Our manufacturers continue to be aggressive in working to bring everybody back.”
The number of Floyd County residents who were on payrolls in June was 41,013, up 801 from May. However, the number of local residents with jobs in June was down 1,122 as compared to June a year ago.
Regionally, the 15-county Northwest Georgia region registered a 6.6% jobless rate for June, down from 8.4% in May.
The region covers Dade, Catoosa, Walker, Whitfield, Murray, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Gordon, Floyd, Chattooga, Bartow, Polk, Paulding and Haralson counties.
The state Department of Labor reported that 379,087 residents of the 15-county region had a job in June, up 7,337 from May. But that’s still over 25,000 fewer people working than in June a year ago.
An issue playing out in Washington now could impact those numbers going forward.
The $600 a week federal supplement unemployment checks are slated to expire at the end of the week unless Congress extends the measure. Krueger said if the federal assistance does expire, it would likely get some people back into the workforce more quickly.