Chattanooga jobless rate drops to 6.4 percent

Unemployment in metropolitan Chattanooga declined last month by 0.9 percentage points to 6.4 percent - the lowest rate since May.

But joblessness in the six-county Chattanooga area remained a half percent above the U.S. rate in September.

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said today that 660 jobs were added in the Chattanooga area during September even as the overall size of the labor force shrunk by 640 as students went back to school and more workers retired from their jobs.

In neighboring metro Cleveland, which includes Bradley and Polk counties, unemployment dropped in September by 0.8 percentage points to 6.2 percent. In metro Athens, the jobless rate also fell by 0.8 percent to 7.2 percent.

Across Tennessee, unemployment in Tennessee fell in 94 counties and rose only in one - Fayette County in West Tennessee.

Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.

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