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Long-term unemployment numbers increase
Posted: 05.20.2010 at 4:51 PM
Updated: 05.21.2010 at 9:15 AM
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The decrease isn’t staggering, but unemployment is down from 10.5 to 10.4 percent in Georgia

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New unemployment numbers show a decrease in April, but it’s taking longer for the unemployed to find work.

The decrease isn’t staggering, but unemployment is down from 10.5 to 10.4 percent in Georgia. However a new report says one in seven Americans is in danger of losing their home. Those mixed numbers are getting mixed reactions.

“I think things are coming along slowly, but surely could take a turn for the better,” said Marilyn Womack of Albany.

Even though unemployment is down a little bit, there are other numbers that suggest that it’s taking the unemployed even longer to find work.

Of the people who were unemployed, 43.1 percent have been unemployed for over 27 weeks,” said Darton College Economics Professor Aaron Johnson. “When you look at the fact that people are unemployed for such a long period of time, their skills become eroded.”

Johnson says the key to getting people to work is getting them trained.

“To maintain our living standards and start to increase living standards in the future, we need to raise productivity. And raising productivity means we need to start getting people employed even if that means taking a job that’s not paying as much.”

There were 215,100 long-term unemployed Georgians in April.

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