Newly released data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development shows July 2019 county unemployment increased in counties across the state.
Rates inched upward in 93 of Tennessee’s 95 counties and remained the same in two counties last month. 44 counties have an unemployment rate of less than five percent, while 51 counties have a rate of five percent or higher.
Williamson and Davidson counties had Tennessee’s lowest jobless rate during July. At 3.2 percent, both counties experienced a jump of 0.2 of a percentage point in unemployment when compared to June’s numbers.
Sevier, Cheatham, Rutherford, Sumner, Wilson, Maury, Robertson, and Dickson round out the list of counties with the ten lowest unemployment rates in the state.
Cannon County’s rate of unemployment increased from June to July. The July rate is 4.2 percent up three-tenths of a point over June’s rate of 3.9 percent. Cannon’s adjoining counties of Coffee, DeKalb, Rutherford, Warren and Wilson all showed a slight increase in unemployment.
Hancock County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 8.2 percent. That is 0.5 of a percentage point higher than it was in June. At 8.1 percent, Clay County had the second-highest jobless rate in July. That represents a jump of 0.8 percentage point when compared to the previous month.
Statewide, unemployment slightly increased last month to 3.5 percent, an uptick of 0.1 of a percentage point when compared to June’s statistic.
The July unemployment rate for the United States remained unchanged in July at 3.7 percent.
A comprehensive listing of labor market information is available on the state’s workforce development website, www.Jobs4TN.gov