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

Columbus 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 Columbus, the unemployment rate decreased 0.2 percentage points in September, reaching 6.6 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.6 percent.

The labor force decreased in September by 82 and ended the month with 116,794. That number is down 5,587 when compared to September of 2019.

Columbus finished the month with 109,057 employed residents.  That number decreased by 386 over the month and is down by 8,901 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Columbus ended September with 115,600. jobs. That number remained flat from August to September but decreased by 5,800 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went down by 17 percent in Columbus. When compared to last September, claims were up by about 1,088 percent.