The Northwest Georgia economy is still feeling the squeeze of unemployment as the region’s unadjusted unemployment rose slightly to 11.2 percent in October.

It was up two-tenths of 1 percent from September to October.

However, the Floyd County unemployment rate stayed level at 10.9 percent when figures were released Thursday, and the state reported that the number of unemployed workers in the area decreased by 17, from 5,383 in September to 5,366 in October.

Click here to visit the Georgia Department of Labor Web site.

Rome gained some 200 jobs from September to October, certainly an indication of at least a modest uptick in the economy. Rome has also registered a net gain of 900 jobs since the local employment picture bottomed out in January.

Floyd County’s unemployment rate was 11.1 percent in both August and September.

In October 2008, there were 3,755 jobless in Rome, when the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent. The number of payroll jobs in metro Rome in October 2009 was 39,600, a loss of 1,000, or 2.5 percent, from 40,600 in October 2008.

Throughout the region, Chattooga County saw its percentage of unemployed jump the highest from a revised September statistic of 11.8 percent to an unadjusted preliminary figure of 13.4 percent, a 1.6 percent increase for the month. Bartow, Catoosa, Polk and Walker counties saw less than a percentage point decrease in their unemployment rates from September to October, while Gordon and Whitfield counties reported slight increases.

Statewide, the number of payroll jobs in October was 3,858,800, a decrease of 227,700, or 5.6 percent, from 4,086,500 in October 2008.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly to 10.2 percent in October, up from 10.1 percent in September.

The over-the-year losses came in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, professional and business services, and construction. Educational and health services added 13,200 jobs during the year.

Also, from September to October, a total of 5,200 jobs were added in retail trade, public and private education, and health care. The state’s labor force decreased 139,015, or 2.9 percent, from 4,859,703 in October 2008 to 4,720,688 in October 2009.

Georgia Commissioner of Labor Michael Thurmond spoke about the state’s unemployment issues at a policy briefing luncheon in Atlanta last week hosted

by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

Thurmond said Georgia officially has 500,000 unemployed of the 15 million people around the nation without a job, and that for every job there are six applicants.

He called for a job summit for find new methods of attacking joblessness.