Tennessee added jobs at twice the pace of the country as a whole in the past year, but the state's jobless rate still remains above the rest of the country.
Unemployment in Tennessee was unchanged in July from the previous month at 5.7 percent, or four-tenths of a percentage point higher than the U.S. unemployment rate of 5.3 percent.
But household surveys of Tennesseans show that the number of jobs in the Volunteer State grew by 3.9 percent from July 2014 to July 2015, totaling 108,600 jobs across the state in the past 12 months. Tennessee's job growth was more than double the 1.7 percent growth rate in jobs nationwide since last July, as measured by Labor Department household surveys.
"The month of July was a very strong month for the Tennessee economy and for employment growth," said Dr. Matt Murray, associate director of the University of Tennessee's Center for Business and Economic Education. "It's very encouraging news and shows the economy continues to gain strength."
Unemployment in Tennessee last month was down 0.5 percentage points from the 6.2 percent unemployment rate in July 2014.
In neighboring Georgia, the jobless rate dipped by a tenth of a percent in July from the previous month to 6 percent. The rate was 7.2 percent in July 2014.
"It's been more than seven years since Georgia's unemployment rate was this low, and the credit belongs to our employers who continue to create jobs and put people to work," Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a report on last month's employment in the Peach State.
Over the past year, the number of jobs in Georgia grew by 2.1 percent, or 89,400 since July 2014. The national job-growth rate was also 2.1 percent.
Even with Georgia's above-average unemployment rate, Butler said the state has more than 77,000 job listings on its new job listing service, EmployGeorgia.
Despite Tennessee's above-average job gains, the average pay of manufacturing workers last month in the Volunteer State, $735.68 per week, was down by $11.28 from June, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Contact Dave Flessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.