Unemployment improves in counties across Tennessee

(Aug. 24, 2023) -  The vast majority of counties in Tennessee experienced a decrease in their unemployment rates during July, according to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD). The lower county unemployment rates came during the same month Tennessee hit an all-time low statewide unemployment rate.

Seventy-nine of Tennessee’s 95 counties reported lower unemployment compared to the county statistics for June. Rates remained the same in six counties, while ten counties did experience a slight increase in their jobless numbers.

Unemployment is below 5% in 81 counties across the state and 14 counties had rates equal to or higher than 5% but lower than 10% in July.

Williamson, Cheatham, Sevier, and Moore counties all had the lowest rates of unemployment at 2.7%. For Williamson County, that was a 0.1 of a percentage point decrease from the previous month. The rates for Cheatham and Sevier counties both dropped by 0.2 of a percentage point, while Moore County’s number was down 0.3 of a percentage point from its June number.

Bledsoe County had the state’s highest unemployment in July at 6.2%, which was still a decrease of 0.2 of a percentage point from its rate in June. Lauderdale County had the second-highest rate at 5.9%, which represented a 0.4 of a percentage point increase from its previous rate of 5.5%.

Statewide in July, Tennessee recorded its lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate since the federal government began tracking jobless numbers in 1976. The new rate of 3.1% edged out the previous all-time low rate of 3.2%.

TDLWD has prepared a complete analysis of the unemployment data from each county, along with the numbers for cities and metropolitan areas across the state. The report is available here.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate inched down to 3.5%, 0.1 of a percentage point from June’s rate of 3.6%.

While unemployment is low across Tennessee, there are thousands of individuals who do not have their high school diplomas and could be in a stagnant work situation. Tennesseans can earn their high school equivalency diplomas by taking courses offered in every county across the state at no cost to them. A map of programs across the state is available at TNWorkReady.com.

The state of Tennessee will release unemployment data for August 2023 at 1:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, September 14, 2023.