By Tom Law
Even with job openings in abundance, Stephens County’s unemployment rate increased to 5.2 percent in June, up from 4.6 percent in May.
Help wanted advertisements have been featured prominently in newspapers, on radio and on billboards in recent weeks in Toccoa-Stephens County, but the number of employed local residents dropped from 9,781 in May to 9,667 in June.
The county’s jobless rate in June, 2020, in the heart of the coronavirus pandemic, was 8.2 percent. Some 9,441 Stephens residents were employed during that month with 841 actively seeking work.
The 5.2 percent unemployment mark was the tops in the northeast Georgia region.
White County reported a 2.7 percent jobless rate in June, down from 2.6 percent in May.
Rabun’s jobless rate stood at 3.2 percent up from 3.1 percent in May; Banks, 3.0 percent, up from 2.8 percent; Elbert, 5.2 percent, up from 4.7 percent.
Franklin County reported its unemployment rate at 4.3 percent, up from 3.9 percent in May while Habersham was 4.0 percent, up from 3.6 percent. Hart County sported an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent in June, up from 3.9 percent in May.
Statewide, Georgia reported an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent during June, up from 4.0 percent in May. Georgia’s jobless rate the same time a year ago was 6.4 percent.
Clay County, in deep southwest Georgia, had the highest jobless rate in the state during June at 11.6 percent. Oconee County, outside of Athens, had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.6 percent.
Nationally, the jobless rate in June was 6.1 percent, up from 5.5 percent in May.
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