State strives to improve bleak picture
By By Laura Raines
On June 6, the Ball Metal Food & Household Products company in Tallapoosa began laying off workers. By year's end, the aerosol-can plant will shut down, and 250 employees will be out of work.
On June 12, Carolyn Barrett, an employment consultant with the Georgia Department of Labor, set up a transition center at the plant. As part of the state Labor Department's Rapid Response Team, she will be there to help workers file for unemployment compensation, search for jobs, and explore educational and retraining options, so that they can get back to work as quickly as possible.
"We're here to give them good information and hope. The purpose is to help them get back to where they want to be — to find another job, or, if it appears that their type of work is slowing down, to talk to them about retraining resources," Barrett said.
The Rapid Response Team partners with other organizations, such as the Technical College System of Georgia and the Georgia Workforce Investment Board.
At first, workers have that "blank, don't-know-where-to-turn stare," but the response team will tell them what they need to know. "The next time I see them, they'll have lots of questions, because they'll have started to think about their future," she said.
"If you have to lose your job, Georgia is the best place to do it," said Michael L. Thurmond, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Labor. "While other states are getting out of the rapid response business, we're stepping up our efforts to give more assistance to job-seekers. We bundle resources and go in as a team with other agencies to help workers and communities."
Thurmond knows that, when a large plant closes in a small town, everyone is affected.
"We want people to know that there is a state agency there willing and able to help them, to give them a head start with the transition," he said.
Among the other tools that the Labor Department uses to help people find jobs are GeorgiaJobTV, a year-round television program that lists job openings and resources by region; an annual televised job fair on Georgia Public Broadcasting (today, 2 to 4 p.m.); and innovative training programs, like Georgia Works.
These approaches work. The national average time from job loss to a new job is 17.3 weeks; the Georgia average is 11.4 weeks. "We're a national leader in getting back to work quicker," Thurmond said.
North Georgia hit hard
The Labor Department plans to keep the Ball Metal transition center open until people stop coming. The department ran a transition center at the Mohawk Industries plant in Dahlonega until it closed on June 6. The 50-year-old plant employed 366 people to make fiber for carpets.
"We had taken unemployment forms for the workers to fill out on site; brought in a professional team to help them rewrite their résumés; and made them aware of local job postings. When we left Mohawk, I felt like there was nothing else we could have done," Barrett said.
"They even helped the community organize a job fair that brought in 45 to 50 employers," said Bruce Abraham, executive director of the Lumpkin County Development Authority.
Mohawk Industries had been the biggest private employer in Lumpkin County.
"Between 2004 and 2008, there have been 9,000 layoffs in the 25 counties of North Georgia, and most of those have been in manufacturing," Abraham said.
Previously, Lumpkin County had a strong employment base in manufacturing of about 17 percent. That figure has dropped closer to the state average of 11 percent.
Recently, North Georgia has seen some of the state's highest unemployment figures, Thurmond said. The area's woes mirror national and state losses. The nation's jobless rate rose to 5.5 percent in May (from 5 percent in April), the largest jump in seasonally adjusted unemployment in 33 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Georgia's unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in May, up from 5.3 percent in April. In Georgia, the total number of people receiving unemployment insurance benefits was up by 37.4 percent from last year — from 54,580 in May 2007 to 74,981 in May 2008.
"For the past three months, our unemployment rate has run at or above the national level, and we expect that trend to continue," Thurmond said. "Since I came in 1999, I have not seen a tougher economic period, and we've come through 9/11, the dot-com bust and [Hurricane] Katrina."
Coast isn't clear
Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University, predicted that Georgia's jobless rate will rise to 6 percent, with the state losing 7,000 jobs this year. According to the Georgia Department of Labor Business Layoff/Closure Log, which lists mostly large layoffs or closures, 5,840 workers were laid off from Jan. 1 to June 10 this year.
Employers as well as job-seekers are struggling with a challenging job market, Thurmond said.
"When fixed costs [such as gas and transportation] go up, the only place for companies to find savings is with the work force. Employers are trying to squeeze out profits from a difficult economy," he said.
In May, Georgia lost 3,000 jobs in the accommodations and food services, retail trade, and construction sectors. Another 4,000 were shed from professional and technical administration, waste services, and temporary agencies. Wholesale trade, health care and social assistance services also lost jobs.
There were more than 10,000 employment insurance claims in manufacturing, with makers of household fixtures, such as carpet, especially affected.
Long-term unemployed
The Labor Department looks closely at the number of long-term unemployed — people still out of work after their six months of unemployment benefits run out.
"That's a critical number and provides greater insight into the job market than initial claims," Thurmond said. "We're seeing an increasingly larger number. There are 42,000 Georgians who have been unemployed more than 26 weeks."
Workers with more education and experience have a tougher challenge than entry-level workers. After being downsized from middle management or highly specialized jobs, they are looking for comparable jobs with the same high salaries and benefits.
"We're seeing a lot more job candidates," said Teela Jackson, a senior consultant with Talent Connections, an Atlanta recruiting firm. "In mid-January our call volume spiked tremendously from individuals who have been downsized — many from the residential building, mortgage or retail industries."
More candidates are competing for fewer job opportunities, and the hiring process is taking longer, she said. Experts call it a period of diminishing growth.
The bright side
"One of the good things about a down economy is that it provokes people to be creative. We're seeing a surge of entrepreneurial spirit," Jackson said.
More people are starting their own businesses, and development agencies have stepped up their job-creation efforts.
"We've had good luck lately recruiting auto manufacturer supply companies to Georgia," said Maggie Large, communications specialist with the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
DongNam Tech, a South Korean manufacturer of carpeting and floor mats, plans to open a plant in Columbus that will add 350 jobs. Glovis, a top-tier supplier to Kia, plans to open a facility in West Point that will hire 600 workers. Suniva, Georgia's first solar-cell manufacturer, will add 100 jobs in Norcross.
To date, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce has attracted 27 companies that will bring 3,000 new jobs to the state this year. It recently opened the Georgia Business Advisory Center Co. in China to attract Chinese companies and help Georgia companies export goods abroad.
Other bright spots around the state include growth in Columbus around the expansion of Fort Benning; plans for the Beltline around Atlanta; and Georgia's bustling port activity in Savannah and Brunswick, Thurmond said.
Lumpkin and four other North Georgia counties — Forsyth, Dawson, White and Union — have begun to think outside the box.
"We could keep chasing new manufacturers to replace those we're losing, but we don't really have the road or rail system up here to compete for large manufacturers," Abraham said.
Instead, the five counties have started an initiative to bring fiber-optic infrastructure to North Georgia.
"Atlanta is the most wired place in the state, but it stops around Windward Parkway," Abraham said. "The state has already funded an initial study to extend fiber-optic cable up Ga. 400 to the state line."
He believes that increased bandwidth can bring higher-paying jobs by attracting data communication and call centers and can enable boutique technology companies to settle in the mountains.
"We're betting that our area [university system and technical] colleges can provide the technology know-how for a new generation of jobs," he said.
In the meantime, the development authority has teamed with Windstream Cable Television to bring the GeorgiaJobTV program to the area, so residents will know about job openings and resources.
The Labor Department is doing its part to meet the need. For the first time in the televised job fair's 14-year history, a portion of today's program will be broadcast from Toccoa (WNEG-TV, Channel 12). Other parts will originate from Atlanta (GPB) and Albany (WALB-TV, Channel 10).
"We get thousands of callers to this job fair every year. Every caller gets a job-search packet and has a chance to talk with career experts on the phone or over the Internet," Thurmond said.
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