Individual County Unemployment Numbers For September

Individual Tennessee county unemployment numbers were released this week for the month of September. There was good news in that 93 of the state’s 95 counties have unemployment rates less than 5%. That happened while the state’s unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percent to 3.2 in September. Cocke County’s unemployment rate mirrored the state in that it was up a tenth of a percent from 4.1 percent in August to 4.2 percent in September. Of the 14,776 eligible workers in the county, 14,159 are employed.

Elsewhere around the area, all surrounding counties saw their rates increase. Greene County saw the biggest increase from 4% in August to 4.4% in September. Hamblen County’s unemployment rate rose from 3.5 to 3.7%. Jefferson County was up from 3.3 to 3.5%. Even Sevier County saw a slight increase from 2.5 to 2.6%. However, that 2.6% rate is tied for the state’s lowest with Moore County in middle Tennessee.

Bledsoe County came in with the highest unemployment for September. Its rate of 5.4% was two tenths a percentage point higher than the previous month. Lauderdale County had the second-highest rate at 5.3%,