Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the Southwest Georgia region saw its unemployment rate decrease in July.
 
The 14-county area also posted an increase in employed residents for the month, preliminary numbers show.
 
“Georgia continues to perform well in terms of jobs, claims and other data I’m seeing,” said Butler. “Georgia’s strong economy was also clear in our local communities in July, a month that saw several again set records.”
 
Nationally, the unemployment rate was unchanged in July at 3.7 percent. Georgia’s rate dropped 0.1 percentage points to settle at 3.6 percent.  A year ago, Georgia’s unemployment rate sat at 3.8 percent.
 
Rates fell or held steady across nine of Georgia’s 12 planning regions.
 
In the region, the unemployment rate decreased in July by 0.1 percentage points, settling at 4.3 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.9 percent.
 
The labor force decreased in July by 106. The July total was 146,161. That number is down by 1,848 from the total from July 2018.
 
Southwest Georgia ended July with 139,901 employed residents.  The number increased by 109 in July but went down by 791 when compared to last July.
 
The number of unemployment claims increased in July by 43 percent. When compared to last July, claims were up by 4 percent.