Wilkes County unemployment is down slightly in December

Unemployment in Wilkes County went down slightly in December, dropping to 11.5 percent from 11.9 percent, but still higher than the state and national average rates.

The latest numbers released from the Georgia Department of Labor state labor force statistics show that there were 269 initial claims for unemployment in Wilkes County in December, up from November 2009 but down substantially from 426 initial claims in December 2008.

There was a total of 510 Wilkes County workers on unemployment in December, down from 527 in November, indicating that some workers were being hired.

Although higher than the state’s, Wilkes County’s rate is not nearly as bad as other counties in the region. Taliaferro County’s rate has shot up from 12.8 in September to 16.4 percent in December. Warren County has 18.4 percent unemployment, and Hancock County is suffering 21.4 percent unemployment.

Other counties are close to Wilkes in unemployment: Lincoln County’s rate is now 11.4 percent up from 10.9, and McDuffie’s rate is steady at just under 12 percent.

The area with the best employment news is nearby Athens-Clarke County, with an overall unemployment rate of only 7 percent, a number which has held steady for months.

Meanwhile, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 10.3 percent in December, matching the record high reported last July. The jobless rate was up two-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 10.1 percent in November. The rate was up 2.8 percentage points from 7.5 percent at this same time last year.

The national adjusted unemployment rate is 10.0 percent. For 25 of the last 26 months, Georgia’s unemployment rate has exceeded the national unemployment rate. And, since the recession began in December 2007, Georgia’s workforce has shrunk by 121,257, or 2.5 percent, from 4,823,467 to 4,702,210.