DUANE SHERRILLEditor

Statewide, Tennessee continued to experience near-record low unemployment in April, and county jobless rates for the month were just as impressive. The latest numbers for the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) show county unemployment decreased from Shelby to Sullivan counties during the month.

The drop included the Tullahoma-Manchester Micropolitan area where unemployment amongst its 47,633 member workforce dropped by 0.6% to 2.6%. Broken down into counties that make up the area, Coffee County’s 24,975 person workforce saw 662 people unemployed as the unemployment numbers sat at 2.7%. Franklin County’s 18,868 workforce had 511 unemployed and also had a 2.7% unemployment rate. Moore County fared best with its 3,790 workforce with 76 people unemployed with a 2% jobless rate. The numbers for the Micropolitan area are all under the state average of 3.4%. Moore has the second lowest unemployment rate in the state.

All 95 counties in Tennessee reported lower unemployment in April and each county had a rate below 5%.

Williamson County recorded the lowest statistic in the state and its April rate was the lowest the county has seen in the last 22 years. At 1.9%, unemployment in the county decreased by 0.5 of a percentage point when compared to March.

Remarkably the rates in the ten counties with the highest unemployment ranged from 4.6% to 3.6%.

Bledsoe County had the state’s highest rate. But, the new 4.6% was down 0.7 of a percentage point from March.

Meigs and Haywood counties had the next highest rates at 4.5% and 4%, both down a full percentage point when compared to the previous month. Every other county in the state had an unemployment rate below 4%.

Statewide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 3.3%, down 0.1 of a percentage point from March’s rate. It is also just above Tennessee’s all-time lowest unemployment rate of 3.2%.

Across the country, seasonally adjusted unemployment also decreased in April, down 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.4%.