TN employment rate dropped to 3.6 percent in June, lowest rate recorded
News release from the governor’s office
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips today announced Tennessee’s unemployment rate for June 2017 was 3.6 percent, the lowest in Tennessee recorded history.
The June 2017 preliminary seasonally adjusted rate surpasses the previous low of 3.7 percent from March 2000. The state has not experienced an unemployment rate below 4.0 percent since it was 3.9 percent in February 2001.
Haslam hails May drop in TN unemployment: Only one county (Rhea) above 5 percent
First paragraphs of an email from Gov. Bill Haslam to those who signed up for such things (that’s virtually certain to be repeated in subsequent stump speeches):
We received some exciting news in June when we learned that for the first time ever recorded, 94 of Tennessee’s 95 counties had an unemployment rate below 5 percent.
As a whole, the state’s unemployment rate for May dipped down to 4 percent, down from 4.7 percent in April. The last time our state rate was that low was March 2001. Tennessee’s unemployment rate now stands better than the national unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, and our state has seen gains in both urban and rural areas.
While our lowest unemployment rates are found in more heavily populated centers, we also saw improvements in rural areas. The county with the highest unemployment rate for May, Rhea County, was at 5.1 percent, but that was a drop from 6.6 percent in April and down from 6.5 percent in May of 2016. And Rhea County received some exciting news in May when Nokian Tyres announced the company will build a new tire manufacturing facility in Dayton and create at least 400 new jobs after the passage of the IMPROVE Act.
The full Haslam email is HERE. The Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s press release on May unemployment figures is HERE.
TN unemployment rate falls to 4 percent, lowest level since 2001
News release from Department of Labor and Workforce Development
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) Commissioner Burns Phillips announces a preliminary unemployment rate of 4.0 percent for May, remarkably dropping nearly an entire percentage point from April’s revised rate of 4.7 percent.
Declining one-tenth of a percentage point from the previous month, the national preliminary rate now stands at 4.3 percent. “May’s unemployment rate is notable for a couple of reasons,” said Commissioner Phillips.
“It’s the lowest rate Tennessee has seen in about 20 years, which is outstanding, and the state figure is now lower than the national average.”
TN unemployment rate fell from 5.1% to 4.7% in April, biggest decline since 1984
News release from Department of Labor and Workforce Development
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) Commissioner Burns Phillips announces a preliminary unemployment rate of 4.7 percent for April, dropping from the revised rate of 5.1 percent in March. This decrease is greater than the tenth of a percentage point fall the national rate experienced in April, which put the U.S. preliminary rate at 4.4 percent for the month.
Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has not declined this much since January of 1984.
