Cocke County Unemployment Rate Among Highest In State In January

Individual Tennessee county unemployment numbers were released on Thursday. Eighty-two of Tennessee’s 95 counties reported unemployment rates below 5% in January. Unfortunately, Cocke County was not among those counties. With the September 27 flood still affecting employment and January being a month that nomally sees an uptick in the unemployment rate becuase of tourism being down, Cocke County’s unemployment rose by a fiull 2% from 5% in December to 7% in January. That is tied for the second highest unemployment rate in the state with Pickett County. Only Perry County in West Tennesee was worse at 7.6%.

Cocke County was not the only county in the area to see its unemployment rate rise in January. Sevier County’s rate rose 2.2%, from 3% in December to 5.2% in January. Jefferson County’s rate went up a full percentage point from 3.5 to 4.5% and Hamblen County went up a half a percent from 3.5 to 4%. Greene County was the only surrounding county and the only county in East Tennessee that saw their unemployment rate not go up. It stayed steady at 4.9%.

Williamson County, just outside Nashville, had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.8%.