Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Northwest Georgia’s labor force saw an increase in September.
Additionally, Northwest Georgia saw a monthly increase in employed residents and a monthly decrease in initial claims for September.
“Although we saw some negative metrics in certain regions and counties, a majority of the areas saw increases in jobs, employed residents, and labor force,” said Comm. Butler. “We really need to push the tens of thousands of jobs that we have on our online job listing page EmployGeorgia.com.
The more we fill these jobs, the more our state can regulate and show positive numbers throughout all regions and counties.”
In Northwest Georgia, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points, reaching 4.7 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3 percent.
The labor force increased in September by 2,182. The September total was 404,153. That number is down by 17,180 from the total from September 2019.
Northwest Georgia ended September with 385,272 employed residents. The number increased by 1,956 in September but was down 23,550 as compared to last year.
Initial claims for unemployment decreased by 9 percent in September. When compared to last September, claims were up by about 603 percent.
Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 4,876 active job postings in Northwest Georgia for September.