Where did the jobs go? Some end search in tough market

Unemployment is on the rise again in Hall County, and 500 Georgians gave up on the job search during June.

There are jobs available, workforce experts said, but often the skills of those seeking positions don’t match the requirements of the openings. That could explain, in part, Hall County’s jump to 7.6 percent unemployment in June from 6.9 percent during May, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

Department of Labor spokesman Sam Hall didn’t sugarcoat the difficulty of the job search in today’s competitive environment.

“The first thing is to understand that today’s job market is very competitive. Georgia is growing jobs, so the opportunities are increasing, but it’s a slow steady rate of job growth, and as you have people who have been out of work, some for a long time, you’ve also got the ongoing influx of graduates from high school to technical school to universities, so there’s a lot of competition,” Hall said. “A person should treat a job search as if it is a full-time job. You can’t just make a call or touch base every now and then. It’s a day-to-day ongoing project. Think about it this way: At this particular time, you are working for possibly the most important employer — yourself.”

Today, the Department of Labor announced the state’s unemployment rate rose to 8.8 percent in July, up from 8.5 the previous month.

And yet for all the stress of a job search, on the opposite side of the coin are employers who simply can’t find employees. There’s been a noted disconnect of supply and demand in the space that employers occupy between a high school diploma and a four-year degree.

via Where did the jobs go? Some end search in tough market.