Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that in July Atlanta passed 3 million employed residents for the first time.

At the same time, the 29-county metropolitan statistical area set a record for labor force and saw its unemployment rate tumble to 3.8 percent.

All indicators remain positive for the year.

“Georgia’s continues to be in a period of sustained growth,” Butler said. “There are no indicators in July that Georgia’s growth is going to slow down anytime soon.”

The July unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent, the fifth lowest rate among Georgia’s 14 MSAs. This is down 0.2 percent from the previous month and down from 4.8 percent one year ago.

The labor force increased in July by 9,877. At 3.1 million total members of the work force, Atlanta set another record. The number has climbed by nearly 70,000 over the past 12 months.

Atlanta added 16,026 new employed residents pushing its total to an all-time high 3 million. That number has grown by just under 100,000 over the past year.

Atlanta lost 10,600 jobs for the month, with total jobs settling at 2.8 million. This puts Atlanta up 57,000 jobs for the year.

Initial claims for unemployment grew by about 6 percent for the month but are down by about 6 percent for the year.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 60,171 active job postings in metro Atlanta for July.

Counties included in the MSA are Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Haralson, Heard, Henry, Jasper, Lamar, Meriwether, Morgan, Newton, Paulding, Pickens, Pike, Rockdale, Spalding and Walton.

Visit dol.georgia.gov to learn more about career opportunities, Employ Georgia and other GDOL services for job seekers and employers and to connect with us on social media.

DATA FOR THE METRO AREAS ARE ATTACHED. TABLES AND GRAPHS REFLECTING LABOR MARKET DATA ARE AVAILABLE AT: http://dol.georgia.gov/current-labor-force-data-and-graphs