July 27, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County unemployment rate for June was 4.8%, up from 3.6% in May but below 5.2% in June 2018.
The local Labor Force for June was 8,001. A total of 7,614 were employed and 387 were unemployed.
Data released Thursday by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) indicates unemployment increased in Tennessee’s 95 counties during June 2019.
Sixty-one counties have unemployment rates below 5 percent, while 34 counties now have unemployment rates at, or above, 5 percent.
With a rate of 3 percent, both Williamson and Davidson counties have the state’s lowest unemployment. The new figure represents a 0.8 of a percentage point increase for Williamson County and a 0.7 of a percentage point jump for Davidson County.
Sevier County has Tennessee’s second-lowest unemployment rate for June at 3.1 percent, which is 0.6 of a percentage point higher than the county’s rate in May. Sumner and Rutherford counties have the third-lowest rate at 3.2 percent, which is up by 0.8 of a percentage point in both counties.
Hancock County recorded Tennessee’s highest unemployment in June. At 7.7 percent, the county saw a 2.4 percentage point increase in unemployment when compared to May. The current rate is 1.4 percentage points higher than it was in June of last year.
Clay County’s unemployment rate is up by 2 percentage points to 7.4 percent. That figure is also up 2 percentage points from June 2018.
“No one likes to see unemployment increase in every county across the state,” said TDLWD Commissioner Jeff McCord. “But the rates typically increase this time of year because we see a lot of seasonal unemployment during the summer months, mostly because school is not in session.”
Tennessee’s statewide unemployment rate also experienced an uptick in June. The current statistic is 3.4 percent, up 0.1of a percentage point from the previous month. The state reached its all-time low unemployment rate of 3.2 percent in February and it remained at the level for three consecutive months.
Nationally, unemployment increased from 3.6 percent to 3.7 percent in June.
County unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted, while the state and national rates use the seasonal adjustment to eliminate outside influences on the statistics.