Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that in July Macon’s unemployment rate fell as all major indicators continued be positive for the year.

At the same time, jobs, work force and the number of employed residents all fell for the month inside the five-county metropolitan statistical area (MSA).     

“Georgia’s continues to be in a period of sustained growth,” Butler said. “There are no indicators in July that Georgia is going to slow down anytime soon. These monthly dips are not significant.”

The July unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent – tied for eighth among all 14 MSAs in Georgia. The rate dropped .2 percent from the previous month. It was  5.4 percent one year ago. 

The labor force fell in July by 393 to reach 106,790 total members. Macon’s work force has climbed by about 800 over the past 12 months.  

Macon dropped 153 from its number of employed residents in July, pushing its total to 102,201. That number has grown by about 1,900 over the past year.  

Macon  saw jobs drop by 900 to reach 102,900. This puts Macon up  800 jobs for the year.

Initial claims for unemployment are  up by about 23 percent for the month and are down by about 27 percent for the year.  

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 1,562 active job postings in metro Macon  for July. 

The five-county MSA includes Bibb, Crawford, Jones, Monroe and Twiggs counties.