Good And Bad News In Unemployment Numbers

The unemployment rate numbers for February have been released and there is good news and bad news. Thye state of Tennessee’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.3% from 3.5% in January. All counties in Tennessee saw their unemployment rates lower from January to February. There is no county in Tennessee with an employment rate above 5%. Here’s the bad news…Cocke County has the highest unemployment rate in the state for the first time in a long time. Cocke County’s unemployment rate dropped a full percentage point from 5.7% in January to 4.7% in February. That ranks as the highest rate in the state. However, when you compare that to February of 2023 when Cocke County’s unemployment rate was 6.3%, that 4.7% looks much better.

Greene County saw its rate drop more than a percentage point from 4.7% to 3.5%. Hamblen County drops to 3%. Jefferson County dropped from 4.4% to 3.6%. Sevier County dropped below 4% to 3.9%. Both Sevier and Cocke County’s unemployment rates are affected by tourism, which of course is down in January and February.

The county with the lowest unemployment rate in Tennessee is Moore County…metropolitan Lynchburg…at 1.9%.