Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters is holding absolutely firm in saying that the latest unemployment numbers from the Georgia Department of Labor are WRONG.

Those February figures show that Chattooga County experienced an astounding jump in the unemployment rate from 5.9% all the way up to 10.1%.

We spoke with the commissioner by phone Monday – and he informed us that he’d been on the telephone with the Department of Labor regarding those numbers – arguing that such a drastic change in rate could only be the result of a huge number of layoffs which the county simply has not had.

We’ve scheduled a meeting with Commissioner Winters for late Tuesday afternoon – and at that point we expect to have additional information and hopefully good news regarding the situation.