HomePostTopic: Unemployment

Unemployment

Key Points

  • As of March 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a nationwide unemployment rate of 3.5%.
  • Well-known companies are conducting large-scale layoffs—in some cases, laying off tens of thousands of employees. 
  • The BETTER WORK program can help you take the next steps in your career to secure a better job, whether you’ve been laid off or you’re simply looking to move to the next level.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the global economy, leading towidespread job losses and an uncertain future for many workers. As we continue tonavigate the economic crisis, it is important to understand the current state of the jobmarket in Georgia and strategies for finding and securing employment.

Times may be turbulent, but with the right mix of strategy, action, and support, it’s possible to find and keep gainful employment.


The state of the job market

The current economic crisis has impacted the job market in a number of ways, causing several industries to contract. Layoffs have been widespread across multiple markets. As of March 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a nationwide unemployment rate of 3.5%. But with many companies announcing widespread layoffs, that number could potentially increase in the coming months.

Since January 2023, the tech industry has been hit hard by layoffs in a number of companies. The impact extended to household-name brands such as Meta, Google, Microsoft, Zoom, Netflix, Salesforce, and many others. Beyond tech, other well-known companies are conducting large-scale layoffs—in some cases, laying off tens of thousands of employees. Disney just announced 7,000 coming layoffs, while Amazon is cutting 9,000 more jobs in addition to the 18,000 jobs it cut in early 2023. Companies such as Goldman Sachs, H&M, Walmart, McDonald’s, Tyson Foods, NPR, and many others are also letting staffers go, in some cases by the thousands. 

Ultimately, white-collar workers are most likely to face layoffs as the impending recession looms. Most blue-collar jobs are still hiring, though, so workers in those sectors may fare better.


Strategies for finding employment

Having a support system to come alongside you and help with your job search is invaluable. The BETTER WORK program can help you take the next steps in your career to secure a better job, whether you’ve been laid off or you’re simply looking to move to the next level. If you’re in the Gwinnett or Columbus areas, we’re ready to help! Learn more about BETTER WORK here.

Regardless of whether you face layoffs or not, it’s important to get prepared for the possibility of a job hunt. It’s far better to update your resume and refresh your network connections now, rather than waiting until it’s too late. Here are a few things you can do to boost your chances for landing new employment, should the need arise.

1. Assess your skills and experience: What skills and experience have you acquired over the years? What about transferable skills? Make an exhaustive list of your professional experience and transferable skills up to this point. After that, consider listing out what skills you might like to acquire in the future.

2. Identify in-demand jobs and industries: If you need to launch a job search, you’ll want to start with industries that are actively hiring. You can research specific industries on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, but it’s also useful to check the pulse of the market by running searches on Google and staying up to speed on LinkedIn.

3. Network and leverage personal connections: It’s always important to meet new professional connections and keep in touch with existing ones, but now it’s more important than ever. Reconnect with professional connections and leverage your network to find new opportunities you might not come across otherwise. If you don’t yet have an account on LinkedIn, go ahead and get set up there, too. It’s a great place to showcase your skills, follow companies you’re interested in, apply for jobs, and keep in touch with professional peers.

4. Utilize online job boards and resources: There are plenty of fantastic resources online that you can use to find and apply for great jobs. Sites like CareerBuilder, Monster, Remote.co, Indeed, and FlexJobs are useful for finding strong opportunities. You can also apply directly to jobs you’re interested in through company websites.

“Having a support system to come alongside you and help with your job search is invaluable.”

“Having a support system to come alongside you and help with your job search is invaluable.”

Moving forward in the job market

Regardless of whether you’re currently job searching or preparing to do so in the future, it’s important to understand how to move forward in the job market. It’s also important to note that, according to Atta Tarki’s report in the Harvard Business Review, it’s “still a workers’ labor market.” That means, for many job seekers, the power is still in your hands. 

Don’t lose heart if you find yourself searching for new work in the near future. Embrace new opportunities and industries, cultivate and identify transferable skills, and get ready to pivot quickly if needed. Stay flexible and adaptable to changing market conditions, and plan for the future. When you remain open to new possibilities, you’ll have that much more control over your career trajectory.



 

People working

Key Points

  • Around 454,100 Georgians are missing from the labor force.
  • The labor force participation rate is a better barometer of the labor market than the unemployment rate because it includes workers who have simply given up looking for work and are sitting on the sidelines of the labor market altogether.
  • We need to answer, how to reintegrate these prime-age, work-capable workers back into the labor force?

A new analysis from the Georgia Center for Opportunity shows that around 454,100 Georgians are missing from the labor force. This figure comes even as pundits celebrate a statewide and national unemployment rate that remains at historic lows. 

The startling statistic shows a hidden story behind the unemployment rate that reveals deeper cracks in the labor market that will cause problems for years to come, both in the economy and in individuals’ lives. The reason why this matters is not strictly an economic one — we know that these individuals’ giving up on work has profound social, psychological, and relational impacts that extend well beyond the pocketbook.

When individuals are separated from work, they lose more than just monetary compensation or the food, shelter, clothing, and other basics that money can buy. They also face a loss of social connection, meaningful activity, self-respect, and overall purpose.

 

The numbers

Here’s a quick deep dive into the numbers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Nov. 4 that the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, which is a tick higher than the previous low of 3.5% but still at historic lows. Georgia’s unemployment rate stands at 2.7%, 14th best in the nation.

The troubling trend is in the labor force participation rate, however. This rate is a better barometer of the labor market than the unemployment rate because it includes workers who have simply given up looking for work and are sitting on the sidelines of the labor market altogether. The U.S. labor force participation rate was at 62.2% in October, down from a pre-pandemic rate of 63.4% in February 2020.

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Those detached from work

It’s important to note that the 454,100 figure developed by the GCO team does not include those unable to work, those who were retired, those in school or college full-time, and full-time caregivers for minor children in the home. In other words, that nearly half-million figure is people who are able to work but have simply decided to detach from the labor force altogether, for some other reason.

As for reasons why workers have quit, they are widespread and complex. The better question is how to reintegrate these prime-age, work-capable workers back into the labor force. That is a primary goal of the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s BETTER WORK initiative, currently operating in Gwinnett County and the Columbus areas of Georgia but soon to expand into many additional regions across the state. 

We see success stories like that of Eddie, who spent nearly five years on the street, homeless and working odd jobs, before getting connected with BETTER WORK Columbus and partner organizations to find stable housing, food security, and a long-term job. The goal of such programs is to get people into stable, self-supporting work so they can escape poverty and dependency cycles.

The GCO team also works to educate policymakers on the perils of benefits cliffs that keep people trapped in cycles of dependency and prevent them from moving up the economic ladder. People like Frankie, a single mom who turned down a $70,000-a-year job because it would mean losing essential government benefits that she relied on to support her family. The goal here is for policymakers to make wise decisions about the safety net so that we don’t continue to pour funds into a failing system.

In The News

stimulus

U.S. Gross Domestic Product update

U.S. Gross Domestic Product declined at a 1.4% rate in the first quarter of 2022. The numbers surprised economists, who had predicted a 1% gain.The Georgia Center for Opportunity’s (GCO) take: “The tab is coming due for all the reckless stimulus spending during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Erik Randolph, GCO’s director of research. “The declining GDP in the first quarter is the strongest indicator yet that our nation is headed into a recession. Even worse, our trajectory is straight toward stagflation, an environment marked by rampant inflation combined with high unemployment. This will hurt poor and middle-class Americans the most.”

statement

Building a stronger network of resources

On November 4th, BETTER WORK Columbus hosted a reception to announce a new partnership with Jobs for Life to bring its proven curriculum and a nationally recognized program to help struggling people find meaningful, self-supporting work. During the event, Ryan Ray, President and CEO of Jobs for Life, shared his heart as well as the passion behind the Jobs for Life training program and the power it has to impact lives in a transformative way.

Problem:

In Columbus, 11,406 people are unemployed, despite more than 6,500 job openings. The problem is not an issue of availability but an issue of access. There are personal, educational, and systemic barriers that prevent some of our neighbors from working or thriving at their jobs. Without work, many begin to identify themselves with their circumstances which creates a vicious cycle of poverty—economically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Solution:

Our BETTER WORK Columbus team has already built a strong network of partnerships and has been using the Jobs for Life framework to recruit and train mentors. Now, we want to take this a step further by extending the network of support to Jobs for Life training sites in our community.

Our BETTER WORK Network has allied with Jobs for Life to help break the cycle of poverty and build up our communities. JFL sites are uniquely positioned to address the root causes of un- and under-employment by uniting churches, businesses, and community organizations and facilitating positive transformation within lives and communities. This model reinforces work as more than just a paycheck but a source of pride and dignity. It is designed to address the loss of identity which often accompanies unemployment.

We will join hands and work together to bring the change our community needs.

How can we work together?

It starts here! We will join hands and work together to bring the change our community needs.

If you live in the Columbus area, we need your help! You can: 

  • Champion a student through mentoring, 
  • help us with recruitment, 
  • hire a graduate, 
  • or simply celebrate with us. 

 

You may also choose to donate by giving online. 

Then send an email to kristin.barker@georgiaopportunity.org to have your gift support local Jobs for Life classes. Include your name and the subject line – “I donated to the BETTER WORK Network and Jobs for Life”.

A Network of Partners is Growing in Columbus

Columbus, Georgia has over 11,000 citizens identifying as unemployed, but the number of available jobs is over 6,000.  What’s the problem? Why are so many people not working?

Kristin Barker serves as the program manager for BETTER WORK Columbus, and provides insight as to why there’s limited job access in the area.

Through growing partnerships in Columbus, the BETTER WORK Network will meet the needs of people where it will have the most impact – in their neighborhoods. One of our partners, Jobs for Life, will utilize their sites to help address the underlying issues creating unemployment.

We know that satisfying work has the ability to restore dignity, build communities, and reduce crime.

We are excited to see so many people working together for the good of helping people.

 

The BETTER WORK Network will meet the needs of people where it will have the most impact – in their neighborhoods.

homeless no job

Is there any reason not to cheer? Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in May. 

Here are three reasons why this looks good for Georgia. 

First, the unemployment rate is declining, giving optimism that the economy is bouncing back from the pandemic.

Second, there were only two periods in recorded history when Georgia’s unemployment rate was this low or lower. Starting from 1976—the extent of available data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on unemployment rates for the states—the first period was between October 1998 and July 2001 when the rate reached as low as 3.4 percent. This period occurred after the long economic expansion of the 1990s. 

The other period—from April 2018 to the start of the pandemic—just occurred with Donald Trump in the White House. During this period, Georgia broke its best record by achieving 3.3 percent.

Third, Georgia’s rate is the 16th lowest in the country, beating out 34 other states. For comparison, the United States as a whole has a rate of 5.8 percent rate, considerably higher than Georgia’s.

 

 

But wait. Is the unemployment rate artificially low?

While optimism is merited, it is important to put the unemployment numbers in perspective.

Unemployment percentages do not capture those who do not participate in the labor force. According to the BLS, anyone not employed who had not actively looked for a job during the prior four weeks is not part of the labor force. Therefore, any person temporarily not looking for work is not accounted for when the BLS calculates the official unemployment rate. Especially now with all the repercussions of the pandemic, all those potential workers who have been sitting on the sidelines for the last four weeks are simply not counted.

The behavior of labor force participation is a loose link for unemployment numbers. Normally, when economic times are good, sidelined workers and even retirees come back into the labor force, which can push the unemployment rate up. When times are bad, the opposite happens. Workers drop out of the labor force, artificially lowering the unemployment rate.

During the depth of the pandemic, and as expected, the labor force participation rate in Georgia dropped—to 59.4 percent to be precise, compared to 62.9 percent just prior to the pandemic. In terms of real people, there were an estimated 260,575 fewer workers participating in the labor force—who were not counted among the unemployed, to emphasize the point. Participation bounced back some to 61.7 percent, but still there are 40,934 fewer workers in the labor force.

Other ways to measure it

BLS’s U-6 labor underutilization metric is another way to shed light on unemployment. It adds to the unemployed those discouraged and other “marginally attached” workers as well as part-time workers wanting full-time work but cannot find it. 

Nationally, the U-6 rate hit a historic high of 22.9 percent in April 2020 representing 36.3 million people. It has since dropped to 10.2 percent representing 16.5 million people. However, in the months prior to the pandemic, the rate was at historic lows—in fact, as low as 6.8 percent. Obviously, while 10.2 percent is far better than 22.9 percent, it is significantly worse than 6.8 percent, representing a difference of 5.3 million workers.

Unfortunately, monthly U-6 data is not available for the states, making any comparison difficult. The BLS currently publishes only experimental U-6 state data averaged over a year’s time.

More useful for the states is the Nonfarm Employment estimates from BLS’s Current Employment Statistics survey. Only two states—Utah & Idaho—have caught up with employment from where they were in February 2020 before the pandemic hit. In contrast, the U.S as a whole is still 5% behind. Georgia ranks 16th among the states and is 4.0 % behind. Hawaii (-14.8%), New York (-9.6%), and Nevada (-8.6%) are the three states furthest behind. 

If we use standard economic ARIMA Model time-series forecasting to estimate where employment would have been absent the pandemic, no state is back on track. The United States is 6.8% behind, and Georgia ranks near the middle in 27th place at −6.1%. Utah and Idaho lead the pack being the furthest ahead, while Hawaii, Nevada, New York, California, and Massachusetts trail the pack.

Observations on state differences and policies

In viewing the differences in employment among the states, the more rural states appear to be doing better. The states more dependent on tourism appear to be doing worse. State governments that implemented less severe lockdowns appear to be doing better. To test these observations, we will be running regression analyses to tease out any correlations. We will post the results when completed.

In the meantime, it is important for government to adopt policies that will help businesses to rebound and make it easier for startups. The goal should be not to just lower unemployment but also to bring those sidelined workers back into the labor force.


Erik Randolph is the Director of Research at the Georgia Center for Opportunity.

construction

April’s nonfarm payroll numbers came in at 266,000, well below the 1 million people forecasters estimated would be hired that month. 

The low number wasn’t because there were a lack of jobs. There were 8.1 million open positions at the end of March. And it wasn’t due to a lack of people who need work. In April, there were 18.2 million people who received some form of federal unemployment assistance.

Hire Dynamics, a staffing and professional recruitment business that operates in the Atlanta area in addition to other locations across the U.S., has experienced the shortage of workers first hand. The following Q&A is an interview with Chuck Fallaw, regional manager for Hire Dynamics.

Q: Please explain what your business does / your focus

Hire Dynamics is a regional staffing agency headquartered in Atlanta GA. We focus on temp-to-hire staffing in the manufacturing, logistics/e-commerce, warehouse distribution, administrative, and call center verticals.

Q: What was hiring like prior to the pandemic?

Prior to the pandemic, we faced challenges with finding talent due to incredibly low unemployment. For example, in Nashville, TN where we had a 1.2% unemployment rate. Their pay rates were naturally rising due to the competition for talent. However, it was still much easier to fill positions than it has been over the last year and a half.

Q: How about during the pandemic?

Hiring during the pandemic was a unique challenge. Many of our clients are considered essential, so their need for talent never slowed down. Outside of true shutdowns, we were still able to fill some roles. That changed quite a bit in the last six months.

 

 

What we do matters.

  • Best of Staffing for Client & Talent Satisfaction by ClearlyRated – 11 years in a row:
  • Top 1% of more than 20,000 staffing companies
  • Continuously recognized as a Best Place to Work company throughout the Southeast
  • Superior client loyalty: client ratings 8 times higher and talent ratings 2.5 times higher than the industry average
  • Committed to and engaged with the communities we serve

Q: Right now, are you having trouble filling positions, and if so which ones?

Yes. All of them. Many of the manufacturers we work with are running around 50% of the workforce they typically employ. Obviously, this is tough on productivity, but it also leads to environments that are not as safe, elevated worker’s comp, and general morale issues among the employees. Light industrial staffing (at least in my region) has been the hardest hit. As I mentioned before, prior to the pandemic the economy was roaring, and talent was in demand. When the pandemic hit, those needs didn’t really go away, but the talent did.

 

Q: In what ways are you trying to recruit / attract employees in this environment?

Grassroots recruiting is very important right now. Getting in front of the talent and helping them get back into the workforce is a big part of what we are doing. We are doing drive-through job fairs, virtual job fairs, and massive recruiting events. In addition, we are coaching our clients on reducing barriers to entry, pay adjustments, and other ways to incentivize employees to come back.

 

 

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