Unemployment in Wilkes County went up in January, rising to 12.2 percent from an adjusted 11.5 percent in December, and still higher than the state and national average rates.

The latest numbers released from the Georgia Department of Labor state labor force statistics show that there were 269 initial claims for unemployment in Wilkes County in December, up from November 2009 but down substantially from 426 initial claims in December 2008.

There was a total of 543 Wilkes County workers on unemployment in January, up from 504 in December, indicating that fewer workers were being hired than were laid off.

Although higher than the state, Wilkes County’s rate is not nearly as bad as other counties in the region. Taliaferro County’s rate declined slightly to 16 percent in January. Warren County has 20 percent unemployment, and Hancock County is suffering 23.5 percent unemployment.

Other counties are close to Wilkes in unemployment: Elbert County’s unemployment rate shot up to 13.4 percent in January from 12 percent, while McDuffie’s rate is up to 12.1 percent from 11.6 percent the previous month. Lincoln County’s rate is now 11.1 percent, down slightly from 11.3 percent.

The Athens-Clarke County area, which consistently has the lowest overall unemployment rate in the state, rose from 7.4 percent to 8.4 percent in the latest report.

Meanwhile, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 10.9 percent in January, up from 8.7 percent at this same time last year.