Unemployment Rate in Cocke County Continues To Fall

Unemployment continues to improve in Cocke County. That is according to numbers released late last week from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Data for individual Tennessee counties showed that Cocke County’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% in May. That is down from 4.4% in April. Cocke County was the only county in the surrounding area to see their unemployment rate continue to go down.

Greene County was up from 3.7% to 4.2%. Hamblen County rose from 3 to 3.4%, Jefferson County rising from 2.9 to also 3.4%. Sevier County was up from 2.4% in April to 2.7% in May. That ranks second in the state for the lowest unemployment rate.
For Cocke County, this is the first time since Hurricane Helene struck last fall that the county is not in the top 10 counties with the highest unemployment rates. Overall 94 of the state’s 95 counties had unemployment rates of less than 5%. Hardeman County in west Tennessee was the only county to have an unemployment rate of 5%. Overall, the unemployment rate for Tennessee was 3.7% in May. June unemployment numbers will be available in late July.