Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Augusta saw its unemployment rate drop in September.

Augusta also saw monthly decreases in its labor force and number of employed residents for 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 Augusta, the unemployment rate decreased 0.4 percentage points in September, reaching 5.1 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.1 percent.

The labor force decreased in September by 2,411 and ended the month with 254,748. That number is down 11,019 when compared to September of 2019.

Augusta finished the month with 241,629 employed residents.  That number decreased by 1,448 over the month and is down by 15,973 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Augusta ended September with 229,800. jobs. That number remained decreased by 700 from August to September and decreased by 11,600 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went down by 11 percent in Augusta. When compared to last September, claims were up by about 605 percent.