Tennessee and Georgia unemploment rates fall in October

photo Unemployment tile

Jobless rates fell in both Tennessee and Georgia in October, officials said Thursday.

Tennessee's unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent, down from the September revised rate of 8.3 percent.

Tennessee's October jobless rate is the lowest since June, according to Tennessee Commissioner of Labor & Workforce Development Karla Davis.

Total nonfarm employment increased 7,500 jobs from September to October, with increases in leisure/hospitality and professional/business services. There were declines in government and mining/logging/construction.

Georgia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 8.7 percent in October, down from 9 percent in September. The jobless rate was 9.7 percent in October a year ago.

"The unemployment rate dropped because we had an increase of 36,000 new jobs, which is the largest September to October job increase ever," Georgia Labor Comissioner Mark Butler said. "That job growth pushed the number of jobs in October to the highest level in any month since December of 2008."

The growth came in retail trade, up 8,000 jobs; education and health care, up 7,000; professional and business services, up 6,000; state and local public schools, up 5,000; leisure and hospitality, up 3,000; technology, up 2,400; construction, up 1,700; financial services, up 900; and manufacturing, up 700.

The national unemployment rate for October was 7.9 percent, up from 7.8 in September.

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