Georgia’s unemployment rate is rising. And with a tight gubernatorial race, the statistic has quickly moved to the center of the campaign. The Georgia Department of Labor said Thursday that the jobless rate topped 8 percent in August. Gov. Nathan Deal is questioning the accuracy of the jobless numbers while his Democratic challenger, Jason Carter, is suggesting Georgians are not better off under Deal.

First: the numbers. Compared to July, Georgia’s unemployment rate rose four-tenths of a percent to 8.1 percent.

At the same time, the Labor Department said 25,000 jobs were created and fewer people were added to the jobless rolls.

Gov. Deal says something doesn’t add up.

“I don’t see how you reconcile an increase in jobs to the second highest month that we have had since 2005, and a significant drop of 27 percent in unemployment applications, and say, ‘Your unemployment rate has gone up’,” he told reporters at a news event.

Now for the politics. The culprit, Deal says, is the federal Department of Labor, which gathers the data that’s the basis for unemployment numbers.

“They have consistently rated our unemployment rate higher than it actually is, when they finally get around to doing the audit. Unfortunately, for election purposes, they won’t get around to doing that until February,” he complained.

And there’s the rub. Meanwhile, Carter, the Democratic candidate, dismisses Deal’s chief economic claim: that Georgia is the No. 1 place to do business.

“He touts this as the No. 1 place to do business but people are not feeling that," said Carter, at a press conference he called Thursday morning. "It might be the No. 1 place to do business for the Governor and his friends but it is not working for the people of Georgia right now.”

Carter says Deal’s fiscal plan is tax reprieves for businesses and austerity cuts for education and other public services.

“It’s now clear they don’t have a handle on what’s happening out there on the state," Carter said. "I will tell you anyone who travels this state and talks to the people who are out there, regular middle class Georgians are falling behind.”

Here’s another stat. Polls show Deal and Carter are in a dead heat, with six weeks left to go in the Governor’s race.

Tags: 2014 election, Jason Carter, Nathan Deal, jobs, election2014