The unemployment rate in Hall County rose slightly in September to 9.1 percent, up from 9 percent in August, the Georgia Department of Labor reported today.

The jobless rate in metro Gainesville, which includes all of Hall, rose as employment declined by 741 jobs. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed workers in the area decreased only by one, from 8,192 in August to 8,191 in September.

In September 2008, 5,428 workers in Gainesville were jobless with an unemployment rate of 5.9 percent. The number of payroll jobs in the county was 74,000, a loss of 4,100, or 5.3 percent, from 78,100 in September 2008.

The state's jobless rate remained 10.1 percent in September, still above the national rate of 9.8 percent. Statewide, the number of payroll jobs in September was 3,844,400, a decrease of 237,100 (5.8 percent) from 4,081,500 in September 2008. The losses came in manufacturing, trade, construction and administrative support services, including temporary employment services. Educational and health services added 13,700 jobs over the year.

Georgia's labor force decreased 117,230, 2.4 percent, from 4,852,086 in September 2008 to 4,734,856 this year.

The jobless rate in the Georgia Mountains region rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.4 percent in September. The rate is 9.9 percent in the Northeast Georgia region (up 0.1 percentage point), 7.2 percent in greater Athens (steady from August) and 10.5 percent in metro Atlanta (up 0.2 of a percentage point.)