Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Southern Georgia’s labor force saw an increase in September.

Additionally, Southern 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 Labor Commissioner Mark 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 Southern Georgia, the unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage points, reaching 5.2 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.2 percent.

The labor force increased in September by 752. The September total was 172,724. That number is down by 5,020 from the total from September 2019.

Southern Georgia ended September with 163,747 employed residents.  The number increased by 107 in September but was down 8,320 as compared to last year.

Initial claims for unemployment decreased by 17 percent in September. When compared to last September, claims were up by about 702 percent.