As owner of Manpower staffing offices in Chattanooga, Cleveland and Dalton, Mark Campbell is on the front line of fighting for jobs -- and workers -- as the economy rebounds in the fourth year of the economic recovery.
"Our job orders are up 20 percent from a year ago, which was 20 percent better than the year before that," Campbell said Thursday. "It looks like 2015 is going to be a strong year -- if we can keep up with the demand and find enough qualified workers."
Unemployment in December
Lowest area county rates: 1. Catoosa, 4.8 percent 2. Dade, 5.1 percent 3. Bradley, 5.6 percent 4. Franklin, 5.6 percent 5. Coffee, 5.6 percent Highest area county rates 1. Van Buren, 9.5 percent 2. Murray, 8.5 percent 3. Rhea, 8.3 percent 4. Grundy, 8.2 percent 5. Meigs, 8.2 percent Sources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor
The improving economy helped cut the jobless rate over the past year by six-tenths of a percentage point in metropolitan Chattanooga and eight tenths of a percentage point in neighboring metro Cleveland, Tenn. If the trend continues, Campbell said the job market may soon shift from a buyers market to a sellers market, potentially bidding up wages for the first time in a decade.
University of Tennessee economist Bill Fox said Tennessee is adding jobs faster than the U.S. as a whole "and I'm as optimistic as I have been in years about the outlook for 2015."
Despite the yearly gains, however, unemployment in the Chattanooga area remained unchanged last month at 6.1 percent, five-tenths of a percentage point above the comparable U.S. jobless rate in December, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Unemployment in Hamilton County was also unchanged at 6.4 percent. But joblessness edged up two-tenths of a percent in the North Georgia counties of Catoosa, Dade and Walker to average 5.3 percent. In the six-county Chattanooga area, 235,570 persons were on the job last month, while 15,260 were unemployed.
The jobless rate last month dipped by a tenth of a percent in metropolitan Cleveland to 5.8 percent. In metro Dalton, Ga., unemployment fell for the fourth consecutive month in December to match the 6-year low in reached last April.
But the 8.2 percent jobless rate in metropolitan Dalton was still the highest of any metro area in the state and well above both the U.S. unemployment rate of 5.6 percent and the Georgia statewide rate of 6.9 percent last month.
The Georgia Department of Labor said Dalton ended 2014 with a gain of only 300 jobs over the level of a year earlier.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.