Unemployment Rates Mainly Below 5% In Tennessee

All but two of Tennessee’s ninety-five counties saw their unmployment rates dip below 5% in the month of May. Cocke County’s unemployment rate was up a bit in May, up from 3.5% in April to 4.0% in May. Even with that increase, Cocke County is NOT in the top 10 counties with the highest unemployment rates.

Bledsoe and Scott counties had Tennessee’s highest unemployment numbers, with both at 5.3%. In Scott County, it was a 1.6% jump from April when their rate was 3.7%. Moore County (Metropolitan Lynchburg) recorded the state’s lowest unemployment rate in May at 2.4%, which was 0.4 of a percentage point higher than the previous month. Williamson County came in with the second-lowest rate for the month at 2.5%.

Elsewhere in our area, Greene County was at 3.7%; Hamblen County 3.5%; Jefferson County 3.3%; Hawkins County 3.7%; Sevier County had the state’s 4th lowest unemployment rate at 2.6%.