County jobless rate up 0.5%

Moira Charnot, Crossville Chronicle, Tenn.
·2 min read

Dec. 5—Cumberland County's unemployment rate in creased by 0.5 percentage points in October to 4.3%, according to new data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. This is not a seasonally adjusted rate.

Out of 21,986 people in Cumberland County's labor force, 952 are unemployed. The county's current rate is also 0.8 percentage points higher than October 2021's unemployment rate, which was 3.5%.

Cumberland County is not an outlier in this trend — every county in Tennessee experienced a small uptick in unemployment in October.

Across the state, 89 counties recorded unemployment rates below 5%, with the remaining six at or above 5%.

However, despite the slight rise, Tennessee continues to experience relatively low unemployment. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5%, a 0.2 percentage point decrease from October 2021 (3.7%).

Williamson County has continued to have the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.4%, which has risen by 0.3 percentage points from September. Bledsoe County continues to have the highest unemployment rate in October 2022, at 5.4%, up 0.6 percentage points from September (4.8%).

Throughout the state, businesses reported 5,800 new non-farm jobs in October. The three largest increases in jobs came from the accommodations and food services sector, the construction sector and the professional, scientific and technical services sector.

Compared to October 2021, 123,200 jobs have been added statewide, with the highest increase of new jobs coming from the leisure and hospitality sector (29.6 jobs).

The trade, transportation and utilities sector had the second-highest increase in jobs in the past year (24.6 jobs), with the education and health services sector following it (24.2 jobs).

Nationwide, the unemployment rate has remained relatively low as well. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points in October, to 3.7% — but this is 0.9 percentage points lower than the October 2021 rate.

Tennesseans seeking jobs can search through job openings, sign up for college prep classes or adult education, or find a job center nearby at TNWorkReady.com.