Instead of Unemployment, Tennessee Labor Department Turns Focus To Unfilled Jobs

Tennessee has a record number of job postings, according to the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Openings have now reached 200,000.

“As the unemployment rate in Tennessee declines, we continue to see job postings go up,” Labor Commissioner Burns Phillips says in a statement.

Far and away, the Nashville area has more job openings than anywhere else in the state — 49,000 in Davidson County alone. Mike Herron, who heads the union at GM’s Spring Hill plant, says it’s competitive. General Motors is trying to hire 1,500 people right now.

“Anybody that would like a job, there are jobs out there available,” Herron says. “In fact, all the businesses in this area have ‘job wanted’ signs up.”

While manufacturers are hiring, the labor department says some of the biggest needs are in health care, on the practitioner side.

Sales and management positions are also in abundance.

Tennessee’s unemployment rate now stands at 4.3 percent —

matching the jobless rate just before the great recession.