All Counties In Tennessee See Unemployment Rates Rise In June

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development says that seasonal changes in employment that occur annually, like school being out for the summer, caused Tennessee’s individual county unemployment numbers to increase during the month of June. Unlike the statewide unemployment rate, county unemployment rates are not adjusted to take into account seasonal impacts. Data for the month of June showed that unemployment rates increased in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties during the month. Eighty-two counties, including Cocke County, had unemployment rates less than 5% in June, while the remaining 13 counties had 5% or greater. The highest unemployment rate was Bledsoe County at 5.8%. Sevier County had the state’s lowe4st unemployment rate at 2.7%.

As far as Cocke County, the unemployment rate went up a full percent in June from 3.5 to 4.5%. That is still lower than June of 2023, when the rate was 4.7%. For the month of June, Cocke County had a labor force of 15,221. Of those individuals, 688 were unemployed in June. Greene County had the biggest rise in unemployment in the entire state as their rate went up from 3.6% in May to 5.2% in June. That’s an increase of 1.6%. Greene County was the only county in the area with an unemployment rate above 5%. Both Hamblen County’s rate was 3.9% and Jefferson County had a June unemployment rate of 3.8%. The statewide unemployment rate is at an all-time low of 3%.