County unemployment rates for April, released Thursday, show the rate decreased in all 95 counties in Tennessee. Specific county information for April is available on the Internet; enter http://www.tn.gov/labor-wfd/labor_figures/LaborApr2014.pdf.
Davidson and Knox counties had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rates in April, both at 4.7 percent. Davidson was down from 5.5 percent in March and Knox was down from 5.6 percent.
The Hamilton County April rate was 5.6 percent, down from 6.7 percent in March. Shelby County was 7.1 percent in April, down from 8.4 percent in March. Both Tennessee and the U.S. had April unemployment rates of 6.3 percent, and both were down from 6.7 percent in March.
The state and national unemployment rates are seasonally adjusted while the county unemployment rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools, and other recurring seasonal events from economic time series.