Governor Bill Haslam and Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips on Thursday announced that county unemployment rates decreased in all 95 counties across Tennessee in April and all counties are at or below five percent.
“Our investments in education and workforce development are showing results in all corners of the state and to have such low unemployment rates in each county is great news for every Tennessean,” Governor Haslam said. “Tennessee will lead in job recruitment because we are focused on developing a high quality workforce.”
All but one county recorded unemployment rates lower than five percent in April. Houston County’s unemployment posted at 5 percent, but that is a nearly one percentage point drop from 5.9 in March.
Williamson County continued to have Tennessee’s lowest level of unemployment with a rate of 2 percent in April. The new figure reflects a decrease of 0.4 of a percentage point from the previous month.
Davidson County had the second lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.1 percent, down half a percentage point from March. The top 10 counties with the lowest unemployment in Tennessee each have a rate at or below 2.5 percent. Shelby County’s rate also dropped half a percentage point last month to 3.5 percent.
The counties which saw the highest unemployment during April also experienced a significant drop in unemployment. With a rate of 4.9 percent, Lauderdale County had the second highest unemployment in the state, but that figure is half a percentage point lower than the month before.
Decatur County experienced the largest drop in unemployment in April with a rate that was 1.4 percent lower than the previous month. 14 Tennessee counties recorded a decrease in unemployment of one percent or more last month.
“To see continued low unemployment in our metro areas is great,” Commissioner Phillips said. “But the decreases we are seeing in our rural and distressed counties show there are new job opportunities statewide.”
For the third consecutive month, Tennessee’s statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.4 percent. For the first time in six months, the national unemployment rate decreased in April when it dropped from 4.1 percent to 3.9 percent.
The statewide unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while county 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 an economic time series.
A complete analysis of the April 2018 county unemployment rate data can be found here.
Additional information on Tennessee labor statistics can be found on the state’s workforce development website.
The state of Tennessee will release the May 2018 statewide unemployment rate on Thursday, June 14, at 1:30 p.m. CT.