Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the River Valley region saw its unemployment rate decrease in July.   
 
The 16-county region also posted an annual decrease in the number of initial claims filed, 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 0.1 percentage points, settling at 4.8 percent. A year ago, the rate was 5.3 percent.
 
The labor force decreased in July by 668. The July total was 146,403. That number is down by 2,591 from the total from July 2018.
 
River Valley ended July with 139,442 employed residents.  The number decreased by 410 in July and went down by 1,724 as compared to last July.
 
The number of unemployment claims increased in July by about 60 percent. When compared to last July, claims were down by about 7 percent.