Jobless in August
TENNESSEE ' Franklin County, 5.3 percent, down 0.7 percent ' Coffee County, 5.4 percent, down 0.6 percent ' Bradley County, 5.6 percent, down 0.7 percent ' Hamilton County, 5.7 percent, down 0.5 percent ' McMinn County, 6.4 percent, down 0.8 percent ' Polk County, 6.6 percent, down 0.8 percent ' Marion County, 6.9 percent, down 0.6 percent ' Sequatchie County, 6.9 percent, down 0.5 percent ' Bledsoe County, 7.1 percent, down 1.5 percent ' Grundy County, 7.2 percent, down 1.7 percent ' Meigs County, 7.4 percent, down 1.1 percent ' Van Buren County, 7.5 percent, down 1.6 percent ' Rhea County, 7.8 percent, down 0.9 percent GEORGIA ' Catoosa County, 5.2 percent, down 0.6 percent ' Dade County, 5.7 percent, down 0.8 percent ' Walker County, 5.8 percent, down 0.7 percent ' Whitfield County, 6.0 percent, down 1.1 percent ' Chattooga County, 6.1 percent, down 0.9 percent ' Murray County, 7.2 percent, down 0.9 percent Sources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor
As summer waned and students returned to classes last month, unemployment fell across the Chattanooga region.
In Dalton, Ga., the jobless rate fell to 6.3 percent - lowest level in more than seven years - as carpet mills continued to rehire workers to meet the rising demand brought about by the rise in residential and commercial construction and remodeling activity.
In the Chattanooga area, unemployment fell in August to 5.7 percent, reversing the rate increases of the previous two months.
"There is a tightness in the labor market, especially in manufacturing, that we haven't seen in a number of years," Dixie Group's Dan Frierson said. "We're seeing that not only in North Georgia but at our other facilities in the South and even in California."
Dalton was one of the hardest hit metro areas in the country when the housing slump hit the economy and pushed the jobless rate in the Carpet Capital above 13 percent six years ago. Unemployment has since fallen in half and is projected to fall even farther in the next year.
Employers in metro Dalton added 200 jobs during August. In the 12 months ended last month, employment grew 1.6 percent, or 1,100 jobs, to 68,300 jobs in metro Dalton, which includes Whitfield and Murray counties.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development estimates employers in metropolitan Chattanooga added 6,764 jobs over the past year, cutting the jobless rate by 1.4 percentage points in the 12 months ending in August.
Chattanooga's non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was a tenth of a percentage point below the statewide average of 5.8 percent but above the comparable U.S. rate of 5.2 percent last month.
Unemployment in metropolitan Cleveland fell by eight tenths of a percent to 5.7 percent.
In a recent roundtable discussion among human resource officers in Chattanooga, most employers said they are beginning to have some problems filling some jobs. But the HR directors said wages have not yet risen significantly because of the improved labor market.
"It's getting tougher and tougher to find enough qualified workers as the economy improves," said Dave Masters, an HR consultant for Clear Options and former HR manager at Shaw Industries. "There is a real shift in emphasis toward improving retention of employees that we didn't see in the past few years."
A survey of area employers conducted by the Chattanooga chapter of the Society of Human Resources Managers in September found that 43 percent of HR directors said they are having a tougher time hiring workers than a year ago, compared with only 19 percent who said the market is better for employers than a year ago. Nearly 60 percent of local employers responding to the SHRM survey said they are having trouble filling key jobs.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.