Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the Northeast Georgia region added more employed residents to its annual figure in January.

Preliminary numbers show, the 12-county region also maintained positive annual numbers for labor force.

In the region, the unemployment rate increased 0.6 percentage points in January to 3.2 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.0 percent.

The labor force decreased in January by 361. The January total was 307,376. That number is up by 3,315 from the total in January 2018.

The Northeast region ended January with 297,486 employed residents. The number decreased by 2,210 in January, but went up by 5,524 when compared to last year.

The number of unemployment claims increased in January by about 42 percent. When compared to last January, claims were up by about 1 percent.