Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the Middle Georgia region saw its unemployment rate decrease in July.
 
The 11-county area also posted an annual increase in employed residents, 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 0.2 percentage points, settling at 4 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.5 percent.
 
The labor force decreased in July by 1,109. The July total was 219,537. That number is down by 869 from the total from July 2018.
 
Middle Georgia ended July with 210,804 employed residents.  The number decreased by 636 in July and went up by 311 as compared to last July.
 
The number of unemployment claims increased in July by about 31 percent. When compared to last July, claims were up by about 5 percent.