Anecdotal evidence of a recovery

To be sure, every report was couched with a statement that the economy remains weak and will be for some time, that the recovery will take a long time, that people are still hurting, etc. But all day I kept hearing expressions of confidence in the economy.

There was also a story about how some states are recovering faster than others. Michigan, hardest hit because of its auto industry, is experiencing a quicker recovery. Georgia, well ...

Our newspaper the same day trumpeted a headline noting that the county school system is planning to lay off 40 workers. That (Thursday) night, the Commerce Board of Education was warned of the potential for layoffs. Community Bank and Trust is idling a number of employees in June, and more than 400 people applied for an entry-level job at City Hall. Foreclosures do not appear to be slowing.

Maybe the optimism from the radio dial and online news sources is premature or ill founded, but it was still good to hear. If people feel optimistic about the future, we’ll see increases in consumer spending, in hiring, in manufacturing. Pessimistic people hold onto their money.

Prior to the recession, Georgia tended to have lower levels of unemployment than other states. We lagged behind others in getting into the recession, but we are among the hardest hit of states and likely to be among the last to experience recovery in whatever form it occurs.

To be sure, the economy still stinks, but after three years of worsening news, folks are starved for any sign of improvement, however slight. The 162,000 jobs created is the strongest performance in three years. Half of those are said to be short-term jobs related to the census, but after months of reports of job losses, any number of jobs gained is progress.

While the consensus is that the situation is improving, we need to recognize that the process will be slow and Georgia may be among the last to experience recovery. It is of little comfort to read that the Georgia jobless rate dropped from 11.9 percent in February to 11.7 percent in March if you’re among the unemployed.

Still, we’ll take the good news.

Mark Beardsley is editor of The Commerce News. This column was published in the April 7 edition.