Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Athens saw its number of jobs increase in September.

Additionally, Athens saw monthly increases in employment and labor force in September.

“Although we saw some negative metrics in certain MSAs, 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 MSAs.”

In Athens, the unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points in September, reaching 5 percent. A year ago, the rate was 2.9 percent.

The labor force increased in September by 460 and ended the month with 93,944. That number is down 4,911 when compared to September of 2019.

Athens finished the month with 89,257 employed residents.  That number increased by 347 over the month but is down by 6,731 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Athens ended September with 93,400. jobs. That number increased by 600 from August to September but was down by 3,200 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went down by 14 percent in Athens. When compared to last September, claims were up by about 811 percent.