The lost decade

The Georgia Budget & Policy Institute has released its annual State of Working Georgia report, and the numbers are pretty grim ...

The annual State of Working Georgia examines the deteriorating status of working Georgians 20 months into the recession, outlining solutions that position Georgia
to catch up. The recession pummeled Georgia and, as the 2009 edition points out, we have more catching up to do than most states.

- Georgia lost 7.6 percent of jobs in this recession, the 5th highest of all states. Compared to other recent recessions, the current prolonged job loss is unparalleled. Georgia has less jobs today than in 2001.

- The working age population of Georgia grew by 19 percent between January 2001 and September 2009, making Georgia a leader in population growth among states, yet with a startling job-population mismatch this decade.

- Unemployment doubled since the beginning of the recession. Roughly 480,000 Georgia workers (10.1 percent) were unemployed. Additional workers have stopped looking for work or taken part-time jobs, making almost 1 in 6 workers underemployed.