(Cleveland)- The Georgia Department of Labor released the latest unemployment figures for White County Thursday.

According to the labor department, the preliminary unemployment rate for the county in August was Two percent, which is an increase of one-tenth of a percentage point from the revised July rate.  Labor Department figures show in August the labor force in White County was 16,624, of those 16,286 were employed while 338 were unemployed.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said that the Georgia Mountains region saw an increase in the labor force from July to August, the rate was also up one-tenth of a percentage point to 2.3 percent.

Butler says, “Although we are seeing fewer unemployed individuals now than before the pandemic started, we are also still seeing a decreased total number of people in the workforce when compared to numbers recorded prior to the pandemic, this will continue to cause a hiring crunch until we can attract more people back to the workforce to fill the record number of job openings.”