Unemployment figures released early Thursday by the Georgia Dept. of Labor (DOL) shows a small decrease in Coweta County but an increase in Newnan. The Coweta rate came in at 9.1 percent in September while the rate for Newnan came in at 11.1 percent.

Throughout Coweta the unemployment rate fell a few tenths of a percent in September. The jobless rate decreased from 9.4 percent in August to 9.1 percent last month. That figure compares to an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent a year ago. The current numbers reflect more than 5,300 people out of work in a county workforce of 58,398.

The jobless rate in Newnan jumped nearly half a percent to 11.1 in September, up from 10.7 percent in August. That translates to 1,464 people out of work in a workforce of 11,750. Newnan’s unemployment rate in Sept. 2009 was 11 percent.

The unemployment situation in the 10-county Three Rivers Regional Commission area improved slightly in September. The jobless rate came in at 10.8 percent, a drop from the 11 percent rate in August and the 11.8 percent rate a year ago.

DOL figures show a Three Rivers workforce of 218,906 people, with 23,612 of those out of work.

In the 28-county Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area the jobless rate in September fell to 10 percent, down from 10.3 percent in August, representing more than 265,000 people out of work.

Across Georgia the recession-fueled unemployment rate held at 10 percent, with more than 460,000 people out of work in a workforce of 4.2 million.
And across the U.S., the September rate also held at 9.6 percent. Nationally there are an estimated 14.77 million people out of work.

The whole story of unemployment resides beyond the figures supplied in the monthly figures. Official unemployment rates listed across America by states and the federal government do not account for those no longer looking for work and those who are underemployed by taking part-time jobs.