Tennessee Labor & Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips announced today Tennessee's preliminary unemployment rate for February was 6.9 percent, which was three-tenths of one percentage point lower than the January revised rate.

The national unemployment rate for February was 6.7 percent, up one-tenth of one percentage point from January.

Over the past year, Tennessee's jobless rate decreased from 8.2 percent to 6.9 percent while the national rate declined from 7.7 percent to 6.7 percent.