The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development recently released county unemployment data for the month of August.
Unemployment in each of Tennessee's 95 counties dropped in August. Of those 95 counties, 89 of them have unemployment rates lower than 5%.
DETAILS HERE: https://t.co/Gvg8vAc2lH pic.twitter.com/BZNXA0ANV8— TN Dept of Labor & Workforce (@Jobs4_TN) September 22, 2022
According to the data, all but six Tennessee counties recorded unemployment rates below 5 percent. The counties that recorded rates above 5 percent were Perry (5.6), Bledsoe (5.4), Shelby (5.3), Lake (5.3), Lauderdale (5.1), and Haywood (5.1).
Additional counties that saw high unemployment percentages during the month of August include McNairy (4.8), Rhea (4.8), Cocke (4.), and Wayne (4.7%).
The counties that saw the lowest unemployment rates were Williamson – turning in the lowest number at 2.3 percent – followed by Cheatham (2.5), Moore (2.6), Wilson (2.6), Sevier (2.6), Sumner (2.7), Rutherford (2.7), Trousdale (2.8), Robertson (2.8), and Hickman (2.9).
The county that saw the largest difference in its unemployment rate from the previous month’s data was Grundy County, which had a rate of 4.3 percent in August – down 1.3 of a percentage point from its July rate of 5.6 percent.
As previously reported by The Tennessee Star, statewide data showed that the jobless rate in the Volunteer State increased by 0.1 percent from the month of July, bringing August’s rate to 3.4 percent. Nationally, according to data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in August was 3.7 percent.
Unemployment rates for both Tennessee and the entire county as a whole dropped from one year prior. In August 2021, the state of Tennessee had an unemployment rate of 4.0 percent while the national rate was 5.2 percent.
Unlike statewide unemployment rates, county unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted to account for different impacts on the workforce, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development notes in a press release.
With September being National Workforce Development Month, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development urges job seekers within the state to visit the Tennessee Office of Reentry (tnworkready.com) in order to find online and in-person resources to secure employment. In addition, there are currently over 400,000 job openings posted from employers in and around Tennessee on the labor department’s website, jobs4tn.gov
It's National Workforce Development Month. Tennessee offers many different training programs that can help you start a new career or advance at your current job.
Check out the different programs here: https://t.co/VijnMSDMuh#WorkforceMonth pic.twitter.com/WYEBnX0Rx9— TN Dept of Labor & Workforce (@Jobs4_TN) September 26, 2022
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Construction Worker” by Burst.
