Verizon Wireless needs two retail salespeople for Augusta stores.
Competitors AT&T and T-Mobile are also looking to hire retail staff.
"While no one is immune to the (economy), wireless communication is one of those things that people don't want to give up," said Verizon spokeswoman Caran Smith. So Verizon needs more staff members from time to time, specifically now at its stores on Washington Road in Evans and in Augusta Exchange.
"Are you hiring?" is a question asked a lot over the past 18 months, Smith said.
Still, for many job seekers, the answer was no.
More people in the Augusta metro area went looking for jobs in January, and a large portion of them didn't find work. As a result, the unemployment rate for the six-county metro area rose to 10 percent in January, up from a revised 9.3 percent in December.
While the job openings haven't met demand, there are employment opportunities in the area -- with indications that March numbers might be more favorable.
Trinity Hospital of Augusta is looking for 12 nurses.
For eight hours on Wednesday, representatives of Augusta-based staffing firm MAU screened people at the Jameson Suites on Claussen Road to fill 60 job openings at different manufacturing facilities around the city.
The line was long enough at one point that people left to come back later, said Brett Yardley, the marketing director for MAU.
"We've seen a phenomenal response to the positions that we do have. If you pass all the screenings, you're going to start work within the next couple of weeks," Yardley said.
MAU was seeking welders, drivers, and forklift and machine operators.
A survey of augustajobs.com, a Web site of The Augusta Chronicle, revealed 72 advertised openings in health care, 38 in retail, 21 in technology and 19 in transportation and logistics.
"There is an increase in the number of employers that are looking to bring back staff. The supply is starting to come back up," Yardley said.
On Tuesday, national staffing firm Manpower released its quarterly hiring outlook for the spring months. In the Augusta-Aiken area, that survey said most employers were going to keep their staffing levels the same, but 17 percent of the respondents said they were going to add people to their payrolls between April and June.
The unemployment rate often lags economic recovery or decline.
In the case of an economic recovery, the unemployment rate increases as more people rejoin the job market, though not enough jobs exists to fill the demand.
The number of people seeking jobs in the Augusta metro area went up from December to January, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Wednesday. The labor department added 3,524 to the metro Augusta labor force, which now sits at 261,555 people.
The number of unemployed workers in the area also increased to 26,104, up 1,991 from 24,113 in December.
The rates for the four Georgia and two South Carolina counties all increased in January.
Despite the increase from 6.7 percent to 7.3 percent, Columbia County remained the third-lowest in the state among counties.
For Georgia, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 10.4 percent in January, topping the previous record high of 10.3 percent reported in December.
For South Carolina, the rate increased to 12.6 percent, up from 12.4 percent in December, the South Carolina Employment Security Commission reported.
The annual benchmarking and revision process conducted by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics resulted in a delay in the release of the state and county unemployment rates.
The February data is expected to be released March 26.
A county-by-county breakdown of the January unemployment rate, with percent change from December:
| County | January rate | Change |
| Aiken | 10.7% | +0.3% |
| Burke | 11.3% | +0.3% |
| Columbia | 7.3% | +0.6% |
| Edgefield | 12.3% | +0.8% |
| McDuffie | 12.1% | +0.5% |
| Richmond | 10.4% | +0.8% |
Source: South Carolina Employment Security Commission, Georgia Department of Labor
| Metro | January 2010 | December 2009 | January 2009 |
| Augusta | 10.0% | 9.3% | 8.5% |
| Atlanta | 10.8% | 10.1% | 8.5% |
| Athens | 8.4% | 7.4% | 6.7% |
| Columbus | 10.4% | 9.4% | 8.3% |
| Macon | 10.9% | 9.9% | 8.6% |
| Savannah | 9.3% | 8.5% | 7.4% |
| Columbia | 10.5% | 10.0% | 8.5% |
| Greenville | 11.6% | 11.0% | 9.3% |
| Charleston | 10.8% | 10.3% | 8.7% |
Source: South Carolina Employment Security Commission, Georgia Department of Labor
WASHINGTON --- The Senate voted Wednesday to extend key pieces of last year's economic stimulus measure, including help for the jobless and money to help financially strapped states pay for health care for the poor.
The bill would provide extra unemployment benefits for people out of work. In hard-hit states, workers could qualify for up to 99 weeks of aid. The higher a state's jobless rate, the more benefits a laid-off worker could receive.
The cost is estimated at $70 billion over 10 years.
Also in the bill is about $25 billion to help states with the cost of Medicaid, the state-federal health program for lower-income people, through June 30, 2011.
The bill also would extend at a cost of $11 billion over 10 years the government subsidy for health care coverage for laid-off workers.
A lengthy list of tax breaks for different industries, most aimed at spurring job creation, and changes in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients also are included in the measure.
-- Associated Press
Time for Countyman to tell us how GREAT Augusta is doing.
County man to the rescue. Next stop Dysfunction Junction and "The Deke Coperhaver-Boardman Stadium and Multi-Use Complex Downtown". All aboooard!!!! "This train don't allow no muggers, this train; This train don't allow no "despots", this train; This train don't allow no "cronies, tokens, crooks or other moronies......... This train is bound for glory, this train
This is probably not going to be very popular but the truth hurts sometimes. I know that unemployment is bad but there ARE jobs out there. Many are just jobs that people feel they are too good for or feel they are overqualified for. As long as unemployment benefits keep getting extended, people will continue to sit at home & collect govt money rather than go get a job at Walmart, Verizon retail, as a server in a restaurant or McDonalds because they think it is beneath them (imagine the horror if your child's friends parents saw you working at Walmart).
If I were unemployed, I'd take pretty much anything. I wouldn't like it one bit but it would need to be done. And, for the short term, you might have to work 2 jobs. Take one full time one at Walmart & a part time job as a server at a restaurant. I'm really afraid that we are grooming yet another group of people to be reliant upon the government. 22 months of unemployment benefits is ridiculous. Much more than that is economically unsustainable for the taxpayers.
The rapid transformation of the United States into Europe is almost complete. Thank you progressives.
chillen....what if McDonald's, Walmart, etc are not hiring. Are you unemployed? No. You can say that I will do this and I will do that till the cows come home, but until you are unemployed...shut up.
But they are hiring. And some people won't work there. There's no need to attack someone personally fool. And I am self-employed and have no plans to be unemployed. Go get a job.
No one plans to be unemployed. I have work, and am very thankful for it. My point is, until you have been unemployed you don't know what you would do, because you have no control over if or when some employer will hire you.
funny "help wanted" signs. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/11/the-13-funniest-help-want_n_493...
If you can't feed them: don't breed them!
Stimulus money should go towards a brith control campagin. Too many despriate people cause a mess!
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