Nathan Deal’s Pathetic Pinnacle: 8.1% Unemployment Rate

Release:  Thursday, September 18, 2014   

Nathan Deal’s Pathetic Pinnacle: 8.1% Unemployment Rate

Atlanta, GA – Today, the Georgia Department of Labor announced more bad news for job-seekers—Georgia’s unemployment rate has spiked to 8.1 percent. Last month, Georgia was ranked with the nation’s 2^nd-worst jobless rate at 7.8 percent.

From the AJC:  The Georgia Department of Labor released figures just before midnight Thursday showing the unemployment rate increased from 7.7 percent in July to 8.1 percent in August. Analysts and Gov. Nathan Deal expected the rate to drop that month as more workers temporarily laid off for the summer were rehired.

The uptick comes at an inopportune time for Deal, who has built his campaign for re-election against Democrat Jason Carter on an optimistic message that Georgia’s economy is improving thanks to his pro-business philosophy.

Last month, Gov. Nathan Deal blamed Georgia’s shockingly high unemployment rate on “a surge of job seekers”, even though the DOL found that the labor force decreased by 4,824.

Deal isn’t the only Georgia Republican in denial about the state’s economic crisis. Last month, Republican Senate candidate David Perdue told attendees at a meet and greet “I agree with whoever said…don’t worry about that unemployment number.” (Huffington Post 8/26/14)

Georgia’s top Republicans continue to prove their reckless ambivalence toward the financial well-being of their constituents—while the state suffers from stagnant job creation and Georgians fortunate enough to have jobs earn less per hour and per week than workers in most of the rest of the country.

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