Georgia unemployment claims climb at slower pace

But year-to-year comparisons are generally considered key to reading trends.

May's new claims were about 69 percent higher than during May of last year. That's bad, but during the winter, the increase from the year before was well above 100 percent.

"The over-the-year increases in initial claims have declined from the triple-digits we experienced earlier in the year," said Michael Thurmond, the state's labor commissioner. "I remain hopeful that Georgia's job losses will continue to decline in the coming months."

From April to May, initial claims were down in most of the state's metro areas.

Unfortunately, over the past year, all 14 metros saw increases. The worst came in Gainesville -- a 136 percent jump in claims -- Brunswick, where claims were up 133 percent, and Augusta, up 116 percent from a year ago.

Athens, the university town that had seemed more insulated at the start of the recession, has been catching up. Claims in May were just about double from a year ago.

In metro Atlanta, 33,078 people filed claims last month, a 72 percent increase from last year.

For Dalton, pounded by layoffs and plant closings, and hammered by both the U.S. recession and global changes, unemployment rates had jumped into double-digits many months ago. But the worst of the damage was apparently done early.

Dalton claims were up 20 percent -- the smallest jump of any metro area over the year.

Nationally, new jobless claims are still at a dismal level, yet there are signs that the very worst is past. An estimated 601,000 Americans filed claims for jobless benefits last week, down from four consecutive weeks above 625,000 according to the U.S. Labor Department.

That modest decline fuels the hope that claims have peaked for this recession. Historically, a peak in new jobless claims has been a sign that the economy is much closer to the end of recession than to the beginning.

However, a drop in new claims is not evidence of improvement in the job market. Evidence of that is in the number of continuing claims, which rose to 6.8 million.

That is a sign that most people who are laid off are having a lot of trouble finding another job.

Nationally, the jobless rate jumped to 9.4 percent last month. The state is slated to report its unemployment rate for May next week.