Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam boasts that the Volunteer State enjoys the lowest per capita debt of any state while its economy is growing faster than the national average in population, employment and personal income.
Among the 11 states with the highest triple-A bond rating, Haslam recently told Wall Street that Tennessee ranked fourth in overall economic growth behind only top-ranked Utah and neighboring Georgia, ranked No. 2, and North Carolina, ranked No. 3.
"Our savings account, the Rainy Day Fund, is 2.5 times more than when we began," Haslam, a Tennessee Republican in his sixth year as governor, said earlier this year in his State of the State address. "When people talk about conservative government, that's it in a nutshell. We're using taxpayers' money like we would use our own."
Last year, Tennessee borrowed money at the lowest interest rate in the state's history, and Haslam is eager to keep borrowing expenses and keep costs down yet again.
The Volunteer State, which has no state payroll tax and relies heavily upon sales tax revenues, is benefiting by above-average economic growth. From 2010 to 2015, the state's economy grew at an annual pace of 2.14 percent, compared with only an average 1.8 percent growth nationwide. Georgia's growth in the same period matched the national average.
But new reports released Thursday indicate both Tennessee and Georgia grew jobs in the past year at a faster pace than the U.S. as a whole. However, due to an influx of workers into the labor market this fall, the jobless rates rose by 0.2 percent in both states during September.
Tennessee's seasonally adjusted jobless rate in September rose to 4.6 percent, up from 4.4 percent in August. Tennessee's unemployment rate was still below the U.S. rate of 5 percent last month.
Tennessee added 14,800 jobs in September, but the number of persons entering the workforce and seeking jobs grew even more. Over the past year, nonfarm employment increased by 71,300 jobs in Tennessee.
"We're seeing very strong year-over-year employment growth, and the labor force has grown as well," said Dr. Matt Murray, associate director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. "By most measures, Tennessee's economy is doing very well and we expect that to continue in 2017."
In Georgia, a similar influx of workers pushed up the jobless rate slightly above the U.S. average last month to 5.1 percent.
"In September, we had the largest increase in our labor force we've seen in nearly a quarter of a century," Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said. "While having 25,737 Georgians begin looking for work in the same month caused a slight increase in the unemployment rate, it's really good news because almost three-quarters of them landed a job right away."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com OR AT 423-757-6430.
Jobless in September
* Georgia, 5.1 percent, up 0.2 percent from the previous month
* Tennessee, 4.6 percent, up 0.2 percent from the previous month
* United States, 5 percent, up 0.1 percent from the previous month.