At first blush the latest initial claims for unemployment assistance numbers for Floyd County might appear alarming, but there may be an easy answer to the whopping increase.

First time claims jumped significantly in Floyd County from June to July.

Statewide, the Department of Labor blamed temporary layoffs in the manufacturing sector for the large increase in first time claims during July.

The silver lining in the July report is that July claims were down solidly from July of a year ago.

Some 1,012 Floyd County residents filed an initial claim for unemployment benefits in July. Those are people seeking unemployment assistance for the first time in the past 12 months.

The July number was up 122.4 percent from the 455 new claims filed during the month of June but down 25.6 percent from first-time claims filed in July of last year.

The report from the Georgia Department of Labor on Thursday revealed that Georgia’s statewide unemployment rate for July was 9.3 percent, up 0.3 percent from June. County by county rates will be available next Thursday.

The trend was similar across the 15-county Northwest Georgia region; initial claims were up 26.3 percent from June to July, but down 22.8 percent as compared to July of a year ago. Some 7,057 first-time claims were filed across the region in July, up from 5,593 in June but well below the 9,138 that were filed in July of 2011.

The state report also indicated that 37,200 payroll jobs were attributed to Floyd County in July, down from 37,400 a year ago.

Help may be on the horizon for the regional job market.

Chuck Scragg, the Northwest Georgia regional economic development manager for Georgia Power, said the entire region is getting a lot of attention from prospective new industries but cautioned that activity does not always translate into announcements.

“There is reason for optimism,” Scragg said. “Statistically speaking, if we were to get what we have gotten in the past, based on activity, it could be pretty significant.”