4 months ago
New job numbers are out for January and Hancock ranks worst in the state with 23.5 percent unemployment.
According to the release, 128 counties in Georgia, or 80.5 percent, have a 10 percent or higher unemployment rate. In Central Georgia, along with Hancock, other counties are Baldwin, Washington, Johnson, Wilkinson, Laurens, Wheeler, Treutlen, Telfair, Dodge, Wilcox, Bleckley, Twiggs, Bibb, Jones, Crawford, Peach, Macon and Dooly.
According to the release, 20 counties in Georgia, or 12.6 percent, have an unemployment rate between 9 and 9.0 percent. Monroe falls into that category at 9.9 percent unemployment.
The release says Pulaski sits at 8.8 percent unemployment and Houston sits at 8.1 percent with the lowest unemployment rate in Central Georgia.
According to the Department of Labor the preliminary unadjusted unemployment rate in metro Macon hit 10.9 percent in January. That's up from 9.9 percent in December 2009.
The release also says that Georgia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is at 10.4 percent for January. That's a record high, up from the previous record high of 10.3 percent set in December 2009.
With downtown Sparta a ghost town of failed businesses, Don Bevill with Hancock County's Development Commission says it's no wonder so many people are out of work.
"The people who have stayed in business here, I have to tip my hat to them because they've persevered under very high taxes and very slow business," Bevill says.
He says there isn't even a Chamber of Commerce because there are too few businesses.
"That's a vital ingredient that we're missing,"says Bevill. "It is the first ingredient, so it's hard to cook up a good economic pie if you don't have the first ingredient."
Those who do have jobs, he says, must commute to neighboring counties.
The state Department of Labor lists the Bank of Hancock County as one of the county's largest employers. According to the bank's Human Resources department, it employs twenty-four people.
Sandy's grocery store in Sparta is another of Hancock's largest employers. Owner Sandy Fisk says he's had to cut bonuses to keep his staff.
"It works out to about 16 or 17 full-timers. And 15, 20 part-timers," he says.
Fisk says the county's high taxes pose the biggest threat to staying in business.
"By the time you pay the school board, city, and the county," says Fisk. "It's about $21,000 a year, which figures out to about $1,850 a month."
He and others say that economic environment makes it hard to attract new businesses and keep them, in an area that desperately needs them.
