The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
County’s job figures show positions attracted, retained
In the past year, DeKalb has “attracted and retained more than 2,300 jobs.” — Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May in the State of the County address Jan. 22.
DeKalb County has “attracted and retained more than 2,300 jobs” in the last year, interim CEO Lee May told business and community leaders during his State of the County address last month.
PolitiFact Georgia wondered, could the county often in the news for corruption allegations and political gridlock also be responsible for growing jobs? We decided to check.
May directed us to DeKalb Workforce Development, the local agency that provides “one-stop” education, training and employment programs under the federal Workforce Investment Act.
Sheryl Stone, Workforce’s director, said the program counts 2,341 people working for the year.
That would support May’s claim, except for hiccups with the counts themselves.
In one category of jobs, the program counts part-time jobs as equal to those with full-time hours (which the county considers after only 32 hours).In another, it lists workers without knowing how many jobs are being done. Without more data, which the county does not collect, we don’t know what is happening.
Overall, the statement appears to be mostly right, except for problems the county acknowledges with the jobs count.
We rated May’s statement Mostly True.