State Unemployment Rate Up Slightly In January

The state’s unemployment rate inched up a bit in the month of January, but is still lower that this time last year. The Department of Labor and Workforce Development released the unemployment data for Tennessee on Thursday. That data shows the state’s unemployment rate went up to 3.5% in January. That is a slight increase over December’s rate of 3.4%. Last January the unemployment rate was 3.6%.

There were 9,900 new nonfarm jobs created between December and January, with the largest increase coming in the professional and business services sector. Individual county unemployment numbers for January will be released next week on March 7.