DALTON, Ga. -- Thomas Hunt thought he had survived the layoffs that cost thousands of other carpet industry workers their jobs during the Great Recession until he got his pink slip in April.
Since then, the 57-year-old former bailer operator at Mohawk Industries has tried unsuccessfully to find work elsewhere.
"I've never been unemployed this long -- usually you can find something to do," Hunt said Wednesday while looking for work at the state's employment office here. "It's going to be a rough Christmas."
Hunt is among nearly 7,000 unemployed workers in metropolitan Dalton, where nearly one of every seven workers is out of work heading into Christmas.
The Georgia Department of Labor reported Wednesday that unemployment in the Dalton area rose to 13.2 percent in November -- the highest of any of Georgia's 14 metro areas. Despite signs of an improving economy, Dalton's jobless rate last month jumped to its highest level since the peak of 13.4 percent reached in March 2009.
As the self-proclaimed Carpet Capital, Dalton still is reeling from the prolonged downturn in housing and construction that has pulled the rug out from under America's floorcovering industry.
Staff cuts in carpet, construction and other seasonal industries nearly doubled the number of unemployed people filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance in metro Dalton from October to November. Last month, 4,824 laid-off workers in metro Dalton filed initial jobless claims, up from 2,450 first-time claims in October.
Over the past year, metro Dalton lost a total of 1,837 jobs. Metro Dalton includes Whitfield and Murray counties in Northwest Georgia.
"We've been bouncing along the bottom now for the past year and we really haven't recovered much," Dalton Mayor David Pennington said. "This is traditionally a slow time in the carpet industry, so there are more layoffs. With the end of the home tax credits earlier this year and the rise in mortgage rates, home building is probably going down right now, not up."
Pennington said he is seeing an upturn in taxable sales, and he expects 2011 will bring more jobs back to Dalton.
But economists predict the recovery may take years to regain all of the jobs lost during the downturn of the past three years.
"Georgia has been especially hard hit because it was so dependent upon the growth in housing and, when that stopped, fast-growing states like Georgia suffered the most," University of Georgia economist Jeff Humphreys said. "We expect the labor market to improve next year. But a year from now I'm afraid the unemployment rate in Georgia is still going to be above 9 percent."
Last month, the state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose 3/10 of a percentage point and back above 10 percent -- the 38th consecutive month Georgia has exceeded the national unemployment rate, which now is 9.8 percent.
Charlie Bethel, a carpet industry executive who gave up his seat on the Dalton City Council this year when he was elected a Georgia state senator, also predicted that next year will be better for Dalton.
"But this recovery is going to have some setbacks, along with forward progress," he said. "We'd all like to see a steady increase in activity and jobs, but I think we're likely to see two steps forward and one step back along this recovery path."
That leaves many Dalton workers struggling at the holidays.
Ofelia Madrano, 47, lost her food service job in June and hasn't been able to find work since.
"I wish I could buy more presents for my daughter this year, but we're worried right now about whether we could lose our house," she said after applying for extended jobless benefits at the local career center.
Sandra Sanchez, 39, said her Christmas dreams "turned into a nightmare" this year when she lost one job and had the hours cut at her part-time replacement job.
"I've put in more than 250 applications for all types of jobs, but nobody seems to be hiring," said Sanchez, who previously worked as a land surveyor, lab technician, secretary and restaurant worker.
Without work, Sanchez is living in the Action Ministries shelter.
Dalton's economic woes are keeping the city's biggest homeless mission -- Providence Ministries -- busier this year, according to mission founder the Rev. Roy Johnson. On Christmas Day, Providence expects to serve meals and hand out toys to up to 5,000 people, he said.
"It keeps getting bigger every year," Johnson said of the 15-year-old Christmas tradition. "We're seeing a lot of people we're not accustomed to seeing coming in to have meals and try to get assistance this year. It's been rough for a lot of people in Dalton, but I think this is a problem for people all over the country."