Barrow County Unemployment Up From May

Barrow County's jobless rate rose nearly a percentage point from May to June, according to preliminary data released by the Georgia Department of Labor on Thursday.

Preliminary June numbers show Barrow with a 10.3 percent unemployment rate, just below Georgia's 10.5 percent average and an increase from May's 9.4 percent figure. Of Barrow's 34,332-person labor force, 3,523 were unemployed in June. The rate is up one-tenth of a percentage point from June 2010.

Local unemployment rates have not been seasonally adjusted. Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, which is up one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.9 from May, has now exceeded the national unemployment rate for 47 months straight. The national rate was 9.2 percent in June, an increase of one-tenth of a percentage point from 9.1. percent in May.

“The increase was caused primarily by two seasonal factors,” State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a news release. “There were layoffs among non-contract public school employees, such as bus drivers and janitorial workers, and an increase in the labor force, as students began looking for permanent or part-time jobs.”

The northeast Georgia area jobless rate increased to 10.2 percent in June, up 1 percent from a revised 9.2 percent in May. This is also up from June last year, when the unemployment rate in northeast Georgia was 9.8 percent.

Area Job Fairs

To help area residents seeking employment, the Georgia Department of Labor Center in Walton County will have its annual career expo in Loganville next week. It will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 4 at Corinth Christian Church on Highway 81.

Parker Security will be interviewing for part-time security guards for the University of Georgia at the Athens Career Center on Aug. 1-2 from 9 a.m. to noon.