Jul. 24--No one has to tell Mayor Bryan Thompson that the unemployment rate is climbing in the metro Brunswick area.

The mayor hears it just about every day, and not just locally either. Just recently, someone e-mailed him from another state asking if he knew of any job openings for the father of two children.

"And I'm sure this is taking place all over the state," Thompson said. "It's a very stressful time in this community and in communities all over the country."

It is in the Brunswick Metropolitan Statistical Area, where unemployment climbed to a new high, jumping an entire percentage point from May to June, to 9.2 from 8.2 percent.

The Brunswick MSA includes Glynn, McIntosh and Brantley counties.

The jobless picture is even worse statewide. Georgia's unemployment rate has hit double digits for the first time in history, increasing to 10.1 percent in June from a high of 9.6 percent in May.

Sam Hall, spokesman for Georgia Department of Labor, said the state is hurting.

"What we're seeing statewide are job losses in mainly construction, retail and business services," Hall said. "The only areas that we have seen growth over the last year are in education and health and allied health."

The health care industry grew by some 12,000 jobs, the labor department said.

Will it get better anytime soon? Yes and no, said Hall.

"We certainly would not be surprised to see the unemployment rate go a little higher before we're out of the recession," he said. "But hopefully we are reaching the pinnacle where they are going to begin coming back down."

He said Brunswick and the rest of the coast are hurting, but not as badly as other areas of the state. In fact, of the 16 Regional Development Centers in the state, the Coastal Georgia RDC has on average the lowest rate of unemployment at 8.9 percent.

The worst is McIntosh Trail Regional Development Center at 14.9 percent. It includes the counties of Butts, Lamar, Pike, Spalding and Upson.

The Coastal RDC, in addition to Glynn, includes the counties of Bryan, Bulloch, Camden, Effingham, Liberty, Long, McIntosh and Screven.

Most of the other RDCs are hounded by rates of 10 percent or higher.

Hall said there is a reason for the disparity between the coast and the rest of the state.

"I would imagine it's because of the all the military bases in that area," he said of the low unemployment rate on the coast in comparison to other areas of the state. "I would imagine it's helping stabilize it."

The federal outposts in the coastal region includes the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick.

Hall said Brunswick has lost jobs in many sectors.

"Job losses in retail trade, construction, accommodation and food services and manufacturing have contributed to the overall job losses in the Brunswick MSA," he said.

June jobless rates

Preliminary unemployment figures for June:

Brunswick MSA

Labor Force: 55,267

Employed: 50,198

Unemployed: 5,069

Georgia

Labor Force: 4,769,341

Employed: 4,285,947

Unemployed: 483,394

- Source: Georgia Department of Labor

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