Toni-Marie Hedge is a December graduate of the University of West Georgia and has already found a job at Decostar in Carrollton.

“I personally, on a personal level, think that the job market is picking up,” said Hedge, a Villa Rica resident.

Though just out of college, Hedge has been working in human resources for eight years. She decided to go to the UWG to earn a degree to increase her earning potential.

She believes that area businesses are looking more seriously at future hiring.

“It is getting to the point where they are going to start hiring, but the type of worker they are going to be hiring, they’re going to require more skills, like a stronger, technology-based skill,” Hedge said.

The job outlook for 2010 may be a little better in some sectors than this year, according to some local employment representatives who are cautiously optimistic.

“In my opinion, yes, it does appear to be looking better,” said Laura Barnett, local employer representative.

Through talking with companies about possible future hiring, Barnett believes there could be some growth in the automotive industry. That could be good news for manufacturing, and area in which Carroll County was battered last year. According to the University of West Georgia’s West Georgia Regional Outlook 2009, the county lost 4.5 percent of its employment base, a total of 1,744 jobs, from first quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009, much of that in manufacturing.

That negative job growth led to double-digit unemployment, so, any job growth would be welcomed by the thousands of job seekers currently looking for work. But many of the jobs being created may be temporary as local businesses deal with spikes in demand they are unsure will be maintained throughout the year.

Tanner Health System, with more than 2,600 employees, is one of the largest employers in the county. Last year, with the opening of Willowbrooke at Tanner, the county added jobs in the health care industry, but this year Tanner is not planning to make any major employment changes, either by adding or laying off, said Debbie Hollenstein, spokeswoman for Tanner. The health system is currently advertising 45 positions on its Web site.

Food production has been a fairly stable industry, said Jim Baeumel, agent at Randstad in Carrollton, which specializes in light industrial work.

Baeumel believes job loss in the county is stabilizing.

“People have cut back to a point now, they’ve been running as lean as they can run,” Baeumel said. “Most companies, I don’t see it possible that they can cut back more than they already have.”

Joey Meeks, president of Georgia Pipe and Precast in Bremen, agreed. He doesn’t believe the economy is going to allow expansion, but he doesn’t see it getting worse. While the company had to do some layoffs last year, he thinks that will be avoided this year.

“I think it’s going to be pretty flat,” Meeks said. “I think everything’s going to kind of hold where it’s at.”

However, the stability of the job base is dependent on the industry.

Education, another large employer in the county, is suffering. State revenues fell precipitously last fiscal year causing funding cuts to all state agencies, including public education, at all levels. Both the public school systems, the University of West Georgia and West Georgia Technical College responded by cutting budgets and employees, either through attrition or layoffs or both. With state revenues continuing to fall, budget cuts are looming on the horizon, and that will probably translate into more job losses in that sector. City and county employees may also feel the effects as well, especially if the lost funding isn’t recouped from local sources.