Georgia’s unemployment rate held steady last month at 9.2 percent, the same as July’s seasonally adjusted rate.

Labor officials originally reported the preliminary July rate at 9.3 percent but then revised that down to 9.2 percent.

Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said the state’s labor force is growing as more people resume their job search and the number of jobs is increasing too.

“We saw over 25,000 new jobs in the state of Georgia. However, a little over half of those jobs created were basically seasonal educational workers, government workers, going back to their jobs,” Butler said.

“But we still had the private sector showing some gains also,” he said.

Butler said the pace of new layoffs also slowed, with initial claims down 19 percent over last month and August a year ago.

“Our initial claims – people who are just now finding themselves, through no fault of their own, becoming unemployed – those numbers are down significantly, some of the lowest numbers we’ve had in several years,” he said.

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