Metro ATL unemployment rate down to 6.8% (Atlanta: 2014, employment, construction)

[DaBurgh]

How about some good non-related storm news


Metro Atlanta unemployment rate 6.8% in December - Atlanta Business Chronicle


The holiday season helped create retail jobs, so we'll see what happens in the coming months. Personally I'm optimistic as I've been reading about the office vacancy rate on the decline, thousands of jobs on their way to the Perimeter are in the coming years, concrete companies loading up on trucks because of the stadiums and widening of I75 and commercial/residential construction, tech companies looking to relocate here, Georgia exports on the rise,

[0nyxStation]

What does this have to do with the Snow storm issues?????

[gtcorndog]

I wonder what the area's labor participation rate is?

The unemployment rate has become a very, very bad stat since so many people dropped out of labor force.

[DaBurgh]

Originally Posted by gtcorndog

I wonder what the area's labor participation rate is?

The unemployment rate has become a very, very bad stat since so many people dropped out of labor force.

That's a good point and slightly down.

http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/pr/laborforce.pdf


News today that the US economy grew at 3.2%

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/bu...&rref=business


Let's hope this is true (5% sounds good to me!):

Georgia's Economic Growth Set To Outpace The Nation's In 2014

[AtlantaIsHot]

I really hope this is true. I long to see it dip below 5% for everybody. Atlanta truly won't rebound until the job creation machine cranks up.

[atltechdude]

Originally Posted by gtcorndog

I wonder what the area's labor participation rate is?

The unemployment rate has become a very, very bad stat since so many people dropped out of labor force.

This is such an absurd line from conservatives.

Of course the participation rate is dropping, the largest portion of the population (boomers) are starting to retire. It's going to go down for probably another decade. Then in a while longer when the boomers start dying, it will go up again.

The unemployment rate means the same thing today as it always did, what percentage of people wanting to work are able to secure employment.

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

Originally Posted by atltechdude

This is such an absurd line from conservatives.

Of course the participation rate is dropping, the largest portion of the population (boomers) are starting to retire. It's going to go down for probably another decade. Then in a while longer when the boomers start dying, it will go up again.

The unemployment rate means the same thing today as it always did, what percentage of people wanting to work are able to secure employment.

MSNBC talking point?

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaLakeSearch

MSNBC talking point?

Let me Google that for you: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=largest+generat...story+retiring

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by DaBurgh

The holiday season helped create retail jobs, so we'll see what happens in the coming months.

Unfortunately, the majority of those seasonal jobs are just that; seasonal. Keep that in mind when you see January's not-so-hot numbers being reported as a down month.

There's always a broader picture.

[atltechdude]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaLakeSearch

MSNBC talking point?

The labor force participation rate thing is a conservative talking point.

It seems like every time someone points out the unemployment rate is going down, someone conservative pops up and says "but wait, that doesn't matter, the participation rate is dropping". It's a totally absurd talking point that was just invented so they would not ever have to admit that the employment picture was improving while Obama was president.

The participation rate goes up and down periodically primarily because of demographics. It's in a downward cycle right now because more of our population is older (due to the baby boom).

Another conservative argument is "well a bunch of people were looking for work and couldn't find it, so they decided not to work anymore", which is even more absurd. If someone needed to work to survive, how does that need change if they initially had trouble finding a job? Unemployment only provides a short term support system, and they surely aren't going to live on food stamps and the MINIMAL level of other government assistance that might be available to them.