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

Additionally, Coastal 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 Coastal Georgia, the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points, reaching 6.3 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.2 percent.

The labor force increased in September by 2,127. The September total was 317,598. That number is down by 12,187 from the total from September 2019.

Coastal Georgia ended September with 297,553 employed residents.  The number increased by 1,317 in September but was down 21,658 as compared to last year.

Initial claims for unemployment decreased by 16 percent in September. When compared to last September, claims were up by about 698 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 7,360 active job postings in Coastal Georgia for September.