CANTON — Cherokee County saw no change in its October unemployment rate from the previous month, according to reports from the Georgia Department of Labor released Thursday.

The jobless rate of 6.6 percent held steady from September, though the county rate is significantly less than in October 2011 at a rate of 7.9 percent.

In the metro Atlanta region, Cherokee retains one of the lowest unemployment rates but was surpassed last month by Forsyth County at 6.4 percent. Fayette County edged in at third place with 7.1 percent unemployment.

The county’s labor force increased slightly in October to 114,622 from 114,093 in September, also an increase from 112,793 October a year ago.

Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate saw a slight decrease to 8.2 percent in October from 8.3 percent in September. In October 2011, the rate was 9.4 percent.

The state labor department reports the rate declined due to an increase of 19,500 new jobs in areas including retail trade, professional, scientific and techninical services, education and health care.

Since October 2011, jobs in the metro region have increased by 33,700 or 1.5 percent from 2,319,800.

Statewide unemployment also declined to 8.7 percent from 9 percent in September. Georgia’s unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in October a year ago.

Georgia saw an increase of 36,000 jobs in October for a total of 3,971,700 jobs. Throughout the year, the state gained 68,000 jobs.

Other are unemployment rates include Bartow at 8.5 percent, Clayton at 10.5 percent, Cobb at 8.8 percent, DeKalb at 8.8 percent, Douglas at 8.6 percent, Fulton at 9 percent, Gwinnett at 7.3 percent, Henry at 8.5 percent; Paulding at 8 percent and Rockdale at 9.4 percent.