Cocke County Sees Biggest Decline In Unemployment In State

Individual county unemployment numbers were released on Thursday. According to the data released by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, unemployment rates were down for most counties in Tennessee during the month of December. Only three of the 95 counties in Tennessee saw their unemployment rate rise or stay the same. The other 92 counties saw a decrease in unemployment. That includes Cocke County.

In fact Cocke County had the biggest decrease in the unemployment rate as it dropped 7/10’s of a percentage point from 4.3 in November to 3.6 in December.

Greene County saw their rate drop by .06% from 4.5 to 3.9%. Elsewhere around the area, Hamblen County’s unemployment rate sits at 3.1%. Grainger County is at 3.2%. Jefferson County dropped from 3.4 to 3.1%. Sevier County has the lowest unemployment rate in the area and one of the lowest in the state at 2.4%.

The lowest unemployment rate was once again in Metropolitan Lynchburg (Moore County) at 2.1%. Bledsoe County on the Cumberland Plateau had the highest unemployment at 4.8%.

The overall unemployment rate in Tennessee remained unchanged at 3.5%.