December 28, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County’s jobless rate for November dropped to 4.1% from 4.7% in October but was still slightly higher than the 3.9% rate recorded in November 2017.
The local labor force for November was 7,930. A total of 7,600 were employed and 330 were without work.
Jobless rates for November among the fourteen counties in the Upper Cumberland region were as follows from highest to lowest:
Van Buren: 4.5%
Jackson: 4.5%
Clay: 4.1%
DeKalb: 4.1%
Fentress: 3.9%
Cumberland: 3.9%
Warren: 3.8%
Pickett: 3.8%
Overton: 3.6%
White: 3.5%
Putnam: 3.4%
Cannon: 3.1%
Macon: 3%
Smith: 2.9%
Each of Tennessee’s 95 counties experienced lower unemployment in November 2018 according to newly released data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD).
Ninety-one counties had an unemployment rate of 5 percent or lower during the month and only four counties had a rate higher than 5 percent.
Williamson County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.5 percent, which was 0.2 of a percentage point lower than the previous month. Both Davidson and Rutherford counties had a rate of 2.6 percent in November, a drop of 0.3 percent for each county.
The 10 counties with the lowest unemployment each had a rate of 2.9 percent or lower in November.
“It’s very encouraging to have so many counties with unemployment rates below 5 percent during November,” said TDLWD Commissioner Burns Phillips. “That means more Tennesseans were working and taking home a paycheck as we headed into the holiday season.”
The counties with the state’s highest unemployment still experienced significant drops in their rates. While Lauderdale County had the highest jobless rate in November at 5.8 percent that figure is a percentage point lower than the previous month. Bledsoe County’s unemployment rate dropped nearly a full percentage point from 6.1 percent to 5.2 percent. McNairy County went from 5.5 percent in October to 5 percent in November.
Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for November decreased from 3.7 percent to 3.6 percent. Nationally, unemployment held steady for the third consecutive month at 3.7 percent.