Georgia's jobless rate ticks upward

ATLANTA - Georgia's jobless rate has risen slightly, marking its first increase in nearly a year.

The Georgia Department of Labor said Thursday that the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 9 percent in June.

That's up one-tenth of a percentage point, from 8.9 percent in May.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said the unemployment rate traditionally inches up in June.

He said that's because new graduates and people searching for summer jobs enter the job market at the same time that private and public schools are laying off employees for the summer.

The number of jobs dropped by 8,200, or two-tenths of a percentage point, from 3,941,500 in May to 3,933,300 in June.

"The June job loss is a lot less than we anticipated, based on recent trends," said Butler, "and despite the overall loss, we gained 1,500 manufacturing jobs and 900 in construction. This is encouraging."

While Georgia lost 8,200 jobs, the state has averaged losing 27,100 jobs between May and June since 2008, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.