WAYNESBORO, Ga. - By the time Theresa Ellison found out that Kwikset was closing its lock-making factory and would lay off all 500 workers, the 26-year-old Waynesboro native had already purchased a house and had a baby.
It's two months after her job of the past four years at the plant ended. Her severance package will run out soon, and she will have to come up with a new plan.
It probably will not involve working in Burke County.
"There's not too many jobs that are around," Ms. Ellison said "I'm going to go look in Augusta. That's my next step."
As tight as the job market is in Augusta, it's even stingier less than an hour away.
When it comes to unemployment, the highest rates in Georgia are found in the rural counties near Augusta.
Ms. Ellison hopes to enroll in school to prepare for a more stable career in teaching or computers. Her two sisters also recently lost jobs at Kwikset. Her fiance has been commuting to work in Augusta since being laid off when Sunlight Casual Furniture closed its factory six years ago.
Although a couple of new manufacturers have moved into Waynesboro, Burke County posted the state's second-highest unemployment rate in June.
While the state averaged 5.2 percent in the Department of Labor's most recent figures, Burke County's jobless figure was 12.3 percent. That means 1,203 of the county's labor force of 9,802 people were looking for jobs and could not find them.
McDuffie County's unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in June, and Richmond County's rate was 6.5 percent. Columbia County reported 3.5 percent.
Across the state line, McCormick County's unemployment rate was the only one in the Aiken-Edgefield area among the top 10 in South Carolina. Although South Carolina has a higher state average than Georgia, at 6.6 percent, McCormick County's rate dwarfs that figure, at 14.9 percent.
YEARS OF DECLINING manufacturing jobs and a national economy that has slowed to the pace of molasses have taken their toll on workers in rural counties.
In 2001, International Paper Co. laid off 165 workers in Wilkes County. Later that year, Delta Apparel fired 105 workers in Wilkes County, which now has the eighth-highest unemployment rate in Georgia, at 9.3 percent.
In 1999, Lincoln County's largest private employer closed when fire burned down Crider Poultry Inc.'s chicken-processing plant, and 212 people lost their jobs. The company later built a new facility outside Swainsboro in Emanuel County.
Two years later, Mayfair Mills Inc. blamed foreign competition when it laid off 96 workers in its Lincoln County facility. The county had the sixth-highest unemployment rate in June.
"Many years ago, Georgia was an agrarian economy," said John Lawrence, assistant director of work-force information and analysis for Georgia's labor department. "As that became mechanized, we were able to attract industrial companies to move in and employ our citizens.
"But much of that is beginning to slow down because of automation and overseas competition."
Nationally, more than 2.5 million nonfarm jobs have been shed from the economy since 2001.
The effects are especially pronounced in rural areas, which typically have small populations and few employers, said Doug Bachtel, a demographer at the University of Georgia.
"When the national economy catches cold, Warren County catches pneumonia," he said.
WARREN COUNTY had the highest unemployment rate in the state in June, at 12.6 percent.
In recent years, Warren County's employment has been closely tethered to the actions of the handful of plants there.
Healthtex Inc. closed its sewing factory in 1998 and put more than 200 people out of work. The county's unemployment rate peaked to a staggering 19.2 percent soon after.
The small community of 6,000 people has seen the job rate drop and soar back up since then. Last year, Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Wheland Automotive Industries filed bankruptcy and closed its Warrenton plant.
"I was the last one out of the plant - myself and another guy," said Dave Akey, a Warren County resident who worked for five years for the brake components manufacturer. "Everybody took it different, but it was kind of heartbreaking."
The burly ex-firefighter rejoined the plant this year as it began to ease back into full production. He said he fields questions constantly about when the plant might start massive rehiring.
Ron Reece, one of the foundry's new owners, said about 40 full-time and part-time workers are now at the site. He said plans are to expand to 200 or more workers in 1 1/2 years.
In the meantime, political and business officials in Warrenton are focusing on increasing the industrial base as a solution to the high unemployment rate.
MINUTES AWAY from the half-mile stretch of Main Street that serves as Warrenton's commercial center and historic district, the county is developing its first industrial park on 100 acres that once were cotton fields.
"Over the past three years, we've been making economic development a priority," said O.B. McCorkle, Warren County's development authority director and chamber president.
Pointing to the areas where land is being purchased and roads are being planned, Ms. McCorkle is optimistic that attracting new employers will be the key to controlling the swings in unemployment that have affected the town.
Warrenton Mayor Edward Ricketson Jr. said he thinks the area is on its way to recovery.
"I think we've reached as high as we're going to go because of Wheland and other companies hiring," he said about the county's unemployment rate. "I would say that most everyone who wants to work can find work somewhere here."
That's a claim backed by job listings at the nearest Department of Labor office, which recently had 20 available positions, including bulldozer truck operator and nurse assistant, in Warren County.
But some of the people not working say they have made the rounds, and the frustrating reality is that jobs are scarce in Warrenton.
On a recent afternoon, Tirrell Gibson sat outside with a group of friends and strongly disagreed with the mayor's assessment that work is available for the willing.
"It's just a small town with no jobs," said Mr. Gibson, 32. "It takes money to move. Everything around here is a dead end."
The six healthy men ticked off a list of previous jobs that included every one of the main manufacturers in the county. While some were fired, most left because of layoffs or cutbacks in production.
Beyond job availability, there are other troubling statistics in the county that affect unemployment, Mr. Bachtel said.
Nearly 43 percent of the county's residents do not have a high school education - twice the state average. More than two-thirds of all births in the county are to unwed mothers, and 13.5 percent of babies are born weighing less than 5 pounds.
"The per capita income ($17,695) is below the state of Mississippi, which is the lowest per capita in the nation," Mr. Bachtel said. "You just can't create job opportunities and hope you can change something. It's low education attainment level, and it's unwed mothers. That has to be dealt with before you lower the unemployment rate.
"This sounds trite, but it has to be a total community effort to come together and solve the problem."
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