Though economic forecasters say the country is now out of recession, the length of Carroll County’s unemployment lines continues to paint a bleak picture of the local job market.

Numbers released this week by the Georgia Department of Labor show Carroll County unemployment up nearly a third of a point from November to December, rising from 10.6 percent to 10.9 percent in just one month. Georgia’s unemployment rate was 10.3 percent in December, matching the record high reported in July and up from 10.1 percent in November.

The most troubling trend illustrated in the most recent numbers, said Dr. David Boldt, chairman of the department of economics at the University of West Georgia’s Richards College of Business, is the drastic increase in the December unemployment rate from the previous year.

December 2009 numbers show nearly a 3-point jump in the jobless rate compared to December of 2008, and if economic officials are correct, Boldt said, the numbers may not start to improve for some time.

“The key comparison is that it’s well up from a year ago,” Boldt said. “Even though, officially, the recession is over and the [gross domestic product] is starting to turn positive, unemployment is a lagging indicator, and most forecasts say it will take some time to improve.”

It might be hard to be optimistic, though there are many in the local commercial and industrial community who are hopeful that 2010 will be the year that the economy begins to bounce back, said Daniel Jackson, head of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and Carroll Tomorrow.

“I would say in general terms, the people I’ve been around, whether they be economic development professionals or business owners, their attitude is that it may not be better yet but it’ll be better this year,” Jackson said. “It’s been hard, and you can’t throw the towel in.” You have to have a positive attitude, and you have to be proactive. You do everything you can, and you just don’t back off.”