Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Albany saw its unemployment rate tick up in September.

Additionally, Albany saw monthly decreases in employment and jobs 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 Albany, the unemployment rate increased 0.5 percentage points in September, reaching 7.4 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.9 percent.

The labor force decreased in September by 42 and ended the month with 63,431. That number is down 3,628 when compared to September of 2019.

Albany finished the month with 58,749 employed residents.  That number decreased by 314 over the month but is down by 5,672 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Albany ended September with 59,900. jobs. That number decreased by 300 from August to September but was down by 3,500 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went down by 16 percent in September. When compared to last September, claims were up by about 772 percent.