The 10-county region that includes Cobb County added more than 10,000 workers to its labor force in June, pushing the total to an all-time record of 2,753,386, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday, July 23.

Employment in the Atlanta Regional Commission also set a record at 2,657,406, up 1,622 from May. The commission covers Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton, Gwinnett, Henry, Fayette, Douglas, Cherokee and Rockdale counties.

The region's unemployment rate ticked up to 3.5% in June, a 0.3 percentage point increase from the prior month. Georgia Labor Commissioner Bárbara Rivera Holmes called the bump a product of "temporary seasonal changes" as schools let out for summer and said year-over-year trends remain stable.

The seasonal pattern held statewide. All 12 of Georgia's regional commissions saw unemployment rise in June, according to the department. Yet the state's overall labor force simultaneously hit its own all-time high of 5,477,859 and employment reached a record 5,294,229, according to a separate Georgia Department of Labor press release issued Wednesday, July 16. Georgia's unemployment rate held at 3.4%, still 0.8 percentage points below the national rate of 4.2%.

Statewide initial unemployment claims rose by 2,374 in June to 18,762, and payroll jobs slipped by about 10,100 from May, the department reported. Over the past year, health care and social assistance led job gains across Georgia, while transportation, warehousing and utilities posted monthly losses.

The Georgia Department of Labor has not released a Cobb County-specific unemployment rate for June. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish its metropolitan area employment report on Wednesday, July 29, which will include more detailed figures for the Atlanta metro area, including Cobb County.

For Cobb County employers, the regional picture offers context but not a precise local reading. A 3.5% unemployment rate across a labor force of 2.75 million means roughly 96,000 people in the 10-county area are actively seeking work, even as the share of the workforce that is employed sits at a historic peak.

The June data marks the second consecutive month of record-setting labor force and employment figures for both the state and the Atlanta region, following similar highs recorded in May.