Chattanooga shed about 10 percent fewer jobs than the U.S. economy as a whole during the Great Recession over the past two years.
But the employment losses in metropolitan Chattanooga in the current economic downturn have lasted longer than previous recessions and continued into the fourth quarter of 2009 even as production rebounded late last year, according to a Brookings Institution study released Wednesday.
PDF: Brookings Chattanooga metro monitor
"Increased economic output is juxtaposed with continued high unemployment," said Howard Wial, a Brookings economist and a fellow with the institute's Metropolitan Policy Program. "The recovery is still spotty and inconsistent in adding jobs."
Unemployment in Hamilton County jumped to 10 percent in January -- the highest level in 27 years. While the jobless rate hit a post-World War II high of 11.9 percent in February 1983 in Hamilton County, the recession in the 1980s was still not as prolonged as the current downtown in the Chattanooga area.
Combined with the 2000-01 recession, the current economic slowdown has left Tennessee with 107,170 fewer employed persons than a decade ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Job losses during"Great recession"From the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2009, employment declined.* Chattanooga, 4.4 percent* Memphis, 4.4 percent* Knoxville, 4.7 percent* Nashville, 5.9 percent* Atlanta, 7.6 percent* U.S. average, 4.6 percentSource: Brookings Institution, Metropolitan Policy Program
"Businesses have learned to make do with fewer employees," said Dr. Bill Fox, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. "The net employment loss we have seen since 2000 reflects how severe this latest downturn has been and how that has completely changed the job market."
Dr. Fox projects Tennessee's overall unemployment rate in 2010 will average above 10 percent in 2010 and be nearly as high in 2011.
Among the state's four major metropolitan areas, Chattanooga had the lowest rate of job losses over the past two years, according to the Brookings study.
The drop in housing prices from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2009 also was less than half the U.S. average in Chattanooga. In metro Chattanooga, home prices fell an average of 2.9 percent last year, compared with a 6.5 percent drop nationwide, Mr. Wial said.
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