Tennessee’s unemployment rate is the worst it’s been in a generation, and reflects the most sudden loss of jobs on record, state officials say. The April unemployment rate was 14.7%, which matches the national figure.
Slight Change in State Unemployment Rate
Tennessee’s jobless rate increased a tenth of percent in February, ending the month at 7.8 percent. Still, it is the lowest the state’s February rate has been since 2008, and marks a two-tenths of a percent decline from the same time last year.
Counties See Improvement in Employment Figures
New unemployment figures show the November jobless rate went down in all but four of Tennessee’s 95 counties. And three of those four held steady, with no increase.
August Makes Four Months of Rising Unemployment
Unemployment in Tennessee inched up for the fourth month in a row. The rate for August released Thursday was 8.5 percent. Tennessee is moving the opposite direction of the national jobless rate, which dropped to 8.1 percent last month.
Unemployment Up in 59 Counties
The jobless rate rose last month in more than half of Tennessee’s counties. The statewide figure inched up from 8.1 to 8.4 percent in July. But according to the state department of Labor and Workforce, when the numbers are crunched on a more local level, they show unemployment rates of ten percent or more in 54 of the state’s 95 counties.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM