Burke unemployment rate increases

By Elizabeth Billips lizbillips@yahoo.com

Burke County's unemployment rate edged to 10.7 percent in May with 1,065 residents out of work.

The rate is up .5 percent since April when 1,011 were unemployed. Last May, 850 residents were jobless and the unemployment rate was 8.4 percent.

According to Georgia Department of Labor (DOL) officials, Burke is among 81 of the state's 159 counties with unemployment rates of 10 percent or more.

Burke County's trend mirrored Georgia's. Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond reported the .5 percent state jump from April to May is largely due to the loss of nearly 217,000 payroll jobs.

Last month, 463,883 Georgians were looking for work - an increase of 62 percent from May 2008.

Jenkins County had the highest unemployment rate in the state with 18.8 percent, and Warren County was just behind at 18.7.

According to DOL officials, many long-term unemployed Georgians may be eligible for up to 20 weeks of State Extended Benefits (SEB) if they have exhausted regular state unemployment insurance benefits (UI) and the first and second tiers of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits. SEB applications are available online at www.dol.state.ga.us or at any labor department career center.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES

	May 2008	April 2009	*May 2009
National	5.5	8.9	9.4
Georgia	5.9	9.2	9.7
CSRA	6.2	8.6	9.5
Burke	8.4	10.2	10.7
Emanuel	6.5	8.9	9.8
Jefferson	9.0	12.5	13.1
Jenkins	15.9	18.5	18.8
Richmond	6.4	8.6	9.6
Screven	7.5	12.9	14.5

*May 2009 rates are preliminary and are likely to be adjusted in the

upcoming weeks. Rates only include those actively seeking work and

do not take into consideration retirees, stay at home parents or those

on disability and other government programs.