Cleveland, Tenn., added more jobs in the past year than any other U.S. city

Cleveland, Tenn., led the nation in the past year in the share of new jobs added from February 2015 to February 2016.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said employment in metropolitan Cleveland jumped by 9.3 percent in the past 12 months, according to the most recent statistics available, adding 4,968 jobs in the two-county area. Among the nation's 387 metropolitan areas, no other city added a bigger share of new jobs, BLS said.

Cleveland was buoyed by the opening of the state's biggest new private investment - the $2.5 billion Wacker Chemical polysilicon production plant near Charleston, Tenn., which has added more than 600 jobs, and Amazon, which increased its distribution facility in Bradley County from 800 jobs to 1,144 jobs.

"We've had a number of new retail, hotel and industrial expansions, as well as continued improvement in construction and development," said Doug Berry, vice president of economic development at the Cleveland/Bradley County Chamber of Commerce. "It's really been a broad-based recovery."

The jobless rate in metro Cleveland fell in February by four-tenths of a percentage point to 4.1 percent - its lowest level since May 2007. The jobless rate in Bradley County dropped in February by three tenths of a percentage point to 3.9 percent.

Nationwide, the jobless rate in February was 5.2 percent.

Metro Cleveland, which includes Bradley and Polk counties, shed more than 7,000 jobs from 2006 to 2010 before regaining all of those jobs by last year and adding nearly 3,000 net new jobs by February 2016.

Employment in metro Cleveland in February was at an all time high of 57,253 jobs.

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development is due to release figures Thursday for March employment in metropolitan areas of the state.