Unemployment Drops Slightly in Tennessee, Still Above National Rate

Tennessee’s jobless rate dipped slightly in the month of August. Unemployment is at 9.7 percent, still well above the national rate of 9.1.

There’s often a shift from July to August as summer jobs end and positions related to education pick back up, says state Labor Commissioner Karla Davis. And the improvement – while just a tenth of a point – is Tennessee’s first month-to-month decrease in a year.

It still leaves roughly one-in-ten jobless. Laquinta Henderson of Nashville is an out-of-work nurse’s aid with five children.

“You have people that’s out here with college degrees who can’t find jobs, so if you don’t have that, and you just have a high school diploma like me, you don’t really have any luck. It’s hard. I’m thinking about going back to school.”

Henderson says she’s considered moving out of Tennessee to look for work. While the state’s unemployment rate was better than the country as a whole for several years, that changed in 2010.