I've always thought that Atlanta had a pretty strong and diversified economy so I was suprised to see that the unemployment rate there has skyrocketed from 4% last year to almost 9.5% right now. Thats like Cleveland or Detroit type numbers. What the heck is going on in the ATL?
You only have to look as far as what are consistent factors between Cleveland, Detroit, and Atlanta, to get your answer.
I don't know what is going on there. I spent 15 years there in the 80's and 90's and had an employment agency. Atlanta has always been a boom town. I was very surprised to see the numbers up so big. Atlanta has always been based on real estate more or less. Especially commerical real estate. I guess it finally caught up. The last time Atlanta had a bust from real estate was in 1974-1977 and it took about 5 years to get out of it. John
Since this is ET I'm assuming that your connection is that they are cities with a high percentage of blacks in the population. That's a pretty easy jump to make I suppose, but I really don't buy it because in the past Atlanta has been very successful. It's served as a model of what a black majority city could be, and companies have had no problem moving there except for traffic. I guess I reserve the right to be wrong, but I just dont think, or want to think, there is something inertly bad about black leadership, even if Obama isnt doing anything to help his team's cause.
It's not a slam at black leadership-although their abilities are certainly suspect too- as much as Atlanta and most minority majority cities rely on low skilled and/or government jobs for semi-full employment. As those low wage private sector jobs go bye bye in the downturn Obama and local "in power" Dems are seeking to expand the public sector. I remember being in the Chicago office of the IRS a few years back and noticing every employee I saw was black.