MACON, Georgia — The unemployment rate dropped a little, but the number of people filing unemployment claims went up—the latest numbers out of Bibb County cover the month of April.
"We shut down and walked away. I started selling stuff, getting rid of stuff. Emptied out my fridge," says Carl Fambro, owner of Francar's Wings.
Fambro says he's had to decide to raise the fryers and turn the open sign to closed earlier this year because of staffing shortages.
He says they were down to around nine, mostly part-time employees. It cost him business and money.
"For over a year, probably about 50 to $60,000," says Fambro.
He opened again in March after people contacted him for employment. He was one of several business owners providing unemployed people jobs in the past few months.
"The unemployment rate dropped in April by .7% down to 3.2% in Macon-Bibb County," says Middle Georgia State University economist Greg George.
George says Bibb saw an uptick in the number of unemployment claims. He says the odd things going on with the economy stem from the federal reserve increasing interest rates which George says will pause temporarily.
"The idea of increasing interest rates was to slow down inflation, and that usually comes at the expense of higher unemployment," says George.
The lower unemployment Bibb is seeing now could impact business owners.
"Just because the labor supply right now is a little bit short, it's good for workers but bad for employers," says George.
George adds we could see a tighter job market for low-skilled jobs like ones that don't require a college degree.
"Maybe some of the low-skilled workers are finding a harder time finding a job, but the high-skilled workers are in high demand. So we can see a split of the labor force. That's why it's always good to improve your human capital," says George.
George adds that 3.2% unemployment is below the natural rate of 4.5%. That's the normal rate with people naturally transitioning between jobs.
He says at 4.5%, that's actually when the market is more stable because, at that point, there's a pool of unemployed workers ready to take on jobs.