State Department of Labor Recieves top rating in U.S.
by Sarah Barnes
Rockdale Citizen
December 3, 2004

CONYERS- Residents in east metro Atlanta have certainly felt the impact of lay-offs these past months. At&T shocked locals with their announcements in October that they would cut 279 jobs in Rockdale County and 100 jobs in DeKalb County. Then, Stanley Works announced in November they would close thier distribution warehouse in Newton County, eliminating 79 jobs.

However, there is a silver lining to the series of events. Amidst the layoffs, workers can count on getting the best help in the country from their state labor department. The Georgia Department of labor (DOL) for getting workers back to work.

The news was released Wednesday to the state DOL's delight. DOL Commissioner Michael Thurmond attributed the state's success to a number of new programs and upgrades the department has made since he first came to the office in 1999. With the changes the state DOL was able reemploy 76.7 percent of the workers who sought its help between the summer of 2003 and the spring od 2004. This added up to 339,869 new jobs for Georgians.

"We're a labor exchange agency," Thurmond said. "The employers are where the jobs are, and if we can help the workers understand the qualifications they need, they can better prepare themselves for the jobs that exist."

One strong move the state DOL made over the last years was transforming its old unemployment offices into career centers. The DOL outfitted its 53 offices with new technology, computers and Internet access so that workers could easily file for unemployment and search for jobs on-site, while employers could post openings.

Also, Thurmond was able to forge stronger relationships with employers and learn what they were looking for in workers. He did this by creating employer committees at each of the state's 53 career centers. Here, Thurmond said the DOL and employers were able to cooperate on how to adress the present economy's challenges.

"It's been a huge benefit, woking closely with the business community," Thurmond said.

After identifying what skills employers are looking, the state DOL has used that information to fuel its Georgia Works retrains program. Georgia Works retrains workers who are unemployed and works closely with companies looking to retrain their workers for other positions.

On another note, Thurmond said that the changes have not only proved adventageous for the Georgia worker, but for the Georgia employer. When workers are unemployed for shorter periods, they draw less benefits. This, in turn, saves those companies that support the state's unemployment fund a significant amount of money.

In Georgia, approximately 200,000 companies pay into the state's unemployment fund. However, unlike the national unemployment average or 16.5 weeks, Georgia workers were unemployed for just 12.6 weeks - almost a month less. This deficit resulted in a surplus of $200 million in Georgia's unemployment fund last year, meaning that was money employers did not have to pay.

"There is a direct correlation between helping the worker find work and keeping taxes low for employers," Thurmond said. "This reafirms our original idea that it's a win-win situation for job seekers and employers when more people are employed."

However, even with the sucesses, Thurmond said he was still not satisfied. Finding work for Georgia workers, like the hundreds that will need jobs in the east metro area and the thousands still unemployed statewide, is a job that is never finished.

"I don't want to declare mission acomplished because there are still thousand of Georgians that are unemployed," Thurmond said.

"We want to reafirm our commitment to them and that for every job, or needs a job, we will find one. We want them to know that they are not alone and that we have a system in place to provide support for those that need it. It's our historical mission to provide this service. It's why we exist."