County unemployment rates for January 2016, released Thursday, show the rates decreased in 82 counties, increased in 12, and remained the same in one county. Specific county information for January is available at www.tn.gov/assets/entities/labor/attachments/Labor_Force_Estimates_Jan16.pdf.
For the month of January, Davidson County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate at 3.6 percent, down from December’s rate of 4.0 percent. Knox County was 3.9 percent in January, down from 4.3 the previous month. The Hamilton County rate was 4.6 percent, down from 5.0 in December. Shelby County was 5.5 percent, down from 6.1 percent the previous month.
Tennessee’s preliminary unemployment rate for January was 5.4 percent, down two tenths of a percentage point from the previous month’s revised rate. The U.S. preliminary rate for December was 4.9 percent, down one tenth of a percentage point from the previous month.
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.