Hamilton County And Chattanooga Unemployment Rates Inch Upward In March

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Published April 26, 2021

Hamilton County, TN – Following a slight rise in the statewide unemployment rate in March, jobless statistics experienced minor increases in most of Tennessee’s 95 counties, according to newly released data from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. 

In Chattanooga, unemployment rose from 4.1% in February to 4.3% in March.  This is still higher than last year’s unemployment rate for March, which was at 3.9%. 

In Hamilton County overall, the unemployment rate rose from 4.5% in February to 4.8% in March.  Mirroring Chattanooga, March numbers this year are higher than those of last year, which came in at 4.1%. 

Tennessee employers added 15,400 employees to their payrolls between February and March. The state experienced its most substantial job growth in the trade/transportation/utilities sector.   

However, in a year-to-year comparison, there were 84,300 fewer jobs across the state in March 2021.   

The leisure/hospitality sector experienced the biggest loss of jobs over the year and the education/health services and government sectors also had significant job losses during the last 12 months. 

Five counties across the state did experience lower unemployment for the month, while rates went up in 86 counties, and remained the same in four counties. 

Thirty-two of Tennessee’s counties had a jobless rate of less than 5%. The remaining 63 counties recorded a rate of 5% or higher. 

Williamson County’s jobless statistic of 3.3% was the lowest in the state. Its March rate was 0.3 of a percentage point higher than it was in February. 

At 3.6%, Moore County posted the second-lowest rate in the state but that is a 0.1 of a percentage point increase from the previous month. Wilson County’s rate of 4% was the third lowest in March, which is an increase of 0.3 of a percentage point. 

Unemployment in Lake County decreased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 8.9%, which is the state’s highest rate for the month. 

Perry County’s rate of 7.5% was 0.2 of a percentage point higher than the previous month’s rate. Unemployment in Bledsoe county went up 0.5 of a percentage point to 7.4%. 

Statewide, seasonally adjusted unemployment inched up 0.1 of a percentage point to 5% in March. 

Nationally, unemployment dropped 0.2 of a percentage point to 6%. 

A complete analysis of the March 2021 Tennessee county unemployment data is available here. 

Job seekers in Tennessee can find more than 220,000 open positions employers need to fill on the state’s workforce development website, Jobs4TN.gov.

The Tennessee Virtual American Job Center (VAJC) allows Tennesseans to research different programs that can help them remove barriers to employment so they can more easily reenter Tennessee’s workforce.   

The VAJC allows job seekers to do this on their schedule, anytime, anywhere.