MARIETTA - One in 10 Cobb County residents are unemployed. The county's unemployment rate continued to rise in January, hitting 10.1 percent - the second highest rate ever recorded in Cobb.

The jobless rate in the county increased by 0.8 percent, from 9.3 percent in December 2009, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Georgia Department of Labor.

The record rate of joblessness was 10.8 percent in January 1976. The third highest was 9.6 percent in October 2009.

Still, Cobb's unemployment rate remains lower than that of metro Atlanta, the state and the nation.

Metro Atlanta's unemployment rate was 10.8 percent in January, up from 10.1 percent in December and up from 8.5 percent in January 2009. All surrounding metro Atlanta counties saw their jobless numbers rise.

In Georgia, the unemployment rate climbed to 10.9 percent in January, up from 10 percent in December, and up from 8.7 percent during the same month last year.

"We were surprised by the size of the increase," Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens said. "It is clear that excessive spending in Washington is not creating jobs."

Nationwide, the non-seasonally adjusted rate was 10.6 percent, up 0.9 percent from 9.7 in December. There were 16.1 million Americans looking for work in January, according to the data.

In January, there were 366,997 people in Cobb's labor force, of which 36,917 were unemployed.

The state Labor Department defines "unemployed" as someone who is not working, but is actively seeking employment.

In Cobb, 4,344 people filed first-time claims in January for state unemployment insurance benefits. That's 14.5 percent more than the 3,794 people who filed in December, according to the state labor department. In January 2009, 4,302 people filed first-time claims in Cobb.

Around the state, 95,264 laid-off workers filed initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits in January, a decrease of 5,632, or 5.6 percent, from 100,896 in December. Most of those claims filed were in manufacturing, trade, construction, and administrative and support services, according to the state Labor Department.

Usually, initial claims rise in January as a result of holiday worker layoffs. However, retailers didn't hire as many seasonal workers as in previous years, Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said.

The average length of time jobless workers in Georgia drew unemployment insurance benefits in January increased to 15.8 weeks, the longest duration on record, the state reported. The duration in January 2009 was 11.5 weeks.

Georgia's workforce has shrunk by 130,043 workers, or 2.7 percent, since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, according to the Labor Department.

"Georgia's unemployment crisis is deepening," Thurmond said in a statement. "I'm concerned that thousands of pending state government layoffs will further cripple Georgia's struggling private job market. Our elected leadership must come together to develop a bi-partisan plan that will balance the state budget and jumpstart private sector hiring."

Bindu Vemireddy, owner of the new, 10,000-square-foot Goddard School under construction at 2465 East-West Connector near WellStar Cobb Hospital in Austell, said the school will provide employment opportunities when it opens this summer. The franchise school is designed to accommodate about 150 children from 6-weeks-old to 6-years-old.

"When the Goddard School reaches enough enrollment, we will have the faculty of up to ten lead teachers and ten assistant teachers," Vemireddy said. "In addition to the teachers, we are now looking for a director of education who is required to have a B.A. or B.S. degree in education."

The Goddard School can be reached at (770) 943-0655.

The number of jobless workers in the state receiving regular state unemployment insurance benefits was 149,537 in January. Another 198,000 Georgians have exhausted their state benefits are receiving Emergency Unemployment Compensation from the federal government.

On March 2, President Barack Obama signed legislation to extend the period of time an individual can file for federal emergency unemployment compensation and full funding of state extended benefits through the week ending April 3. If the benefit period is extended by Congress and signed into law by the President after April 3, individuals will be notified by mail, the state Labor Department said.

To receive any extended benefits, individuals must be unemployed and not be eligible to establish a new regular unemployment claim in Georgia, any other state, U.S. territory or Canada, according to the state Labor Department.

More information is available on the Georgia Labor Department's Web site at www.dol.state.ga.us.