County unemployment rates for December 2015, released Thursday, show the rates decreased in 43 counties, increased in 35, and remained the same in 17 counties. Specific county information for December is available here: http://www.tn.gov/assets/entities/labor/attachments/Labor_Force_Estimates_Dec15.pdf.
For the month of December, Davidson County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate at 4.0 percent, down from November’s rate of 4.1 percent. Knox County was 4.3 percent in December, down from 4.4 the previous month. The Hamilton County rate was 5.1 percent, the same as November. Shelby County was 6.1 percent, down from 6.4 percent the previous month.
Tennessee’s preliminary unemployment rate for December was 5.6 percent, up one tenth of a percentage point from the previous month’s revised rate. The U.S. preliminary rate for December was 5.0 percent, unchanged from November.
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.