State Unemployment Up; Phone Systems Tied

The unprecedented number of state unemployment claims is breaking records- and phones.

One of the nine phone systems that handle the 150,000 weekly unemployment claims calls crashed yesterday after a technical glitch caused circuits to overload. After several hours of being out of service, the phone line is up-and-working again.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond says normally eight phone systems can handle the calls- but the current volume of people seeking to file unemployment claims warrants an extra system.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of Georgians filing first-time claims for state unemployment insurance is up 80.7 percent from January of last year.

Those receiving unemployment compensation must call the automated system every week to verify that they’re looking for work. Thurmond says calls started coming in at 12:01 AM this week. By 1 AM claims for over 3,000 people had been certified.

(AP)

Synovus, Capital One cutting Columbus jobs

Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corporation said Wednesday they were cutting back 230 positions.

Company officials say that’s out of 650 posts in total among their five-state operation, and that over half the losses were due to attrition. The cutback will be spread over the next two years.

Synovus is Georgia’s second-largest banking institution.

In addition, The Associated Press reports that Capital One it will close its GreenPoint Mortgage
servicing center in Columbus, eliminating 220 jobs by the end of the year, including customer service, production support, collections and investor reporting.

Atlanta-based Simmons Bedding also plans to close its Mableton plant and lay off 103 employees this month.

Simmons Chairman and CEO Charlie Eitel says the Sept. 18 layoffs come amid "excess capacity" after the company expanded operations, and "difficult times" in the bedding and home furnishings industries.

Local manufacturing will move to plants in Waycross and Charlotte, N.C. The plant had reduced shifts from two to one this spring, cut about 50 jobs and transferred operations to a plant in Dallas.

The cutbacks come as 59,090 Georgians filed first-time unemployment claims in August, according to Department of Labor officials - a 72-percent rise since last year.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the latest job cuts.

(The AP contributed to this report)

Unemployment claims are highest 1-year jump in 7 years

The state’s Department of Labor says this morning 59,090 laid-off workers filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits in August. That number stands as an increase of 72-percent over August of last year. Labor department officials say it’s the largest over-the-year jump in initial claims since October of 2001--that’s when significant layoffs were seen in the weeks following the terrorist attacks.

Rise in state unemployment claims

New numbers from the state Department of Labor show that just over 50-thousand laid-off workers filed first-time claims for unemployment in April. That represents an increase of 21-percent from March. The loss of jobs came across-the-board in the areas of manufacturing, construction, trade and services. A sampling of some metro areas in the state experiencing an uptick in claims filed: Atlanta up 2,731, or nearly 16-percent from March. Dalton was up by 714 claims, or 31-percent. Macon saw a rise by 442 claims from March, or almost 51-percent.

Unemployment claims rise

Unemployment insurance claims rose almost 4 percent last month.

The Department of Labor said layoffs mostly in manufacturing caused the increase in first-time unemployment claims. Initial claims, the department says, indicate economic activity because they measure newly unemployed workers.

Claims in March totaled above 42 thousand. That figure is up by 36 percent from last year at this time.

Unemployment claims up from 2006 to 2007

Georgia’s first-time unemployment claims are up. The state Department of Labor says nearly 47,000 laid-off workers filed first time claims in December 2007 … 16% more than December 2006. However the labor Department says claims were down 2.6% from November to December ’07.

First-time jobless claims down for September

There was a 6.4 percent decrease from August to September in first-time unemployment claims filed by laid-off workers in Georgia. The state Department of Labor says the decrease came mainly in trade and services. The Augusta-area had the biggest decrease percentage-wise in first time claims, down 29-percent. At the opposite end of the scale, first-time claims jumped 68-percent in Dalton from August to September.