Gordon County has seen a slight decrease in unemployment claims, according to the state Department of Labor. September first-time unemployment claims declined 8.5 percent compared to September of last year.

However, there was a slight bump in initial unemployment claims over last month, just 0.6 percent.

In September, 875 people filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance in Gordon County, while in August 870 people filed claims. Last September 954 people filed initial unemployment claims.

Neighboring counties are seeing changes in initial claims also; Whitfield saw a 35.1 percent decline in claims over last year, and a 14.1 percent drop since last month. Chattooga County saw an 11.3 percent drop since last year and a 13.1 percent decrease over August 2009.

However, Bartow County has seen a 33 percent increase in the number of claims filed, 882 last month compared to 663 September of last year. Floyd County also had an increase of 15.3 percent.

According to the Georgia Department of Labor, roughly 67,000 residents filed first-time claims for state unemployment insurance in September. Those numbers represent a17.6 percent increase from September 2008. While that may seem like a large increase, unemployment numbers did decrease more than 3,000 from August.