Big Kennesaw Job Growth in 2011

Kennesaw’s employed workforce continued to grow in December even though the unemployment rate rose slightly.

The same was true for all of Cobb County, where employment ended 2011 on the rise while the jobless rate crept higher in December.

Fourteen more Kennesaw residents were working at the end of December than had jobs a month earlier, according to preliminary figures the state Department of Labor reported today, but the city’s unemployment rate ticked up to 9.7 percent from a revised 9.6 percent in November.

The more important comparison is to a year ago, and the city’s rate dropped almost a point and a half from 11.1 percent in December 2010 as almost 350 more residents found work. Kennesaw had a series of big employment announcements in 2011, including and , and recently gained another boost from .

The local employment figures are not seasonally adjusted, so the month-to-month changes don’t always reflect the health of the local economy. It’s typical for construction employment to fall as winter arrives, and workers hired for holiday retail jobs often are let go after Christmas.

Countywide, about 7,400 more Cobb residents were working at the end of December than had jobs in December 2010, according to the preliminary Labor Department figures. A total of 340,810 people in the county ended 2011 employed, while 31,464 people 16 and older were seeking jobs.

That means 305 more people were working in December than in November even though the county’s jobless rate rose to 8.5 percent from because the workforce grew. The county’s rate fell almost a full point from 9.4 percent in December 2010.

For metro Atlanta, covering 28 counties including Cobb, the unemployment rate increased to 9.4 percent in December from 9.2 percent in November because of layoffs in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, administrative and support services, and accommodations and food services, the Labor Department said.

In the smaller, 10-county area covered by the Atlanta Regional Commission—Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties—the pattern was the same: 9.3 percent unemployment in December, up from 9.1 percent in November and down from 10.1 percent in December 2010.

The seasonally adjusted statewide rate in December was 9.7 percent, down from 9.8 percent in November and 10.4 percent in December 2010. Georgia’s jobless rate remains above the seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate, which was 8.5 percent in December, down from 8.7 percent in November and 9.4 percent in December 2010.

“The rate declined because 11,500 Georgians went back to work in December,” state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a news release. “Plus, we saw some increases in employment in areas that have been especially hard hit.”

The number of long-term unemployed people statewide decreased 3,800 in December to 245,100, the Labor Department said.

That improvement reflected a trend the department reported Wednesday: Georgians typically spend a month less on state unemployment benefits than the average American.

As of December, the average Georgian on state unemployment insurance stopped benefits after 13.3 weeks. Nationally, the average was 17.4 weeks. Only North Dakotans get off state benefits sooner than Georgians.

Georgia’s unemployed can stay on state benefits for 26 weeks before federal benefits begin.

“When people think of a Labor Department, traditionally they think of the unemployment office,” Butler said. “In Georgia, we are trying to stop that. This is an employment office. We strive for that designation.”

The state Labor Department held a that appeared on Patches across Georgia on Wednesday, and Butler is participating in a panel discussion today at on training to prepare the workforce of the future.

You can follow that discussion live on Kennesaw Patch at 11:30 a.m.