Jobless in February
Tennessee * Bradley, 4.6 percent, down 0.6 percent * Hamilton, 4.8 percent, down 0.7 percent * Coffee, 4.8 percent, down 0.8 percent * Franklin, 5.1 percent, down 0.9 percent * McMinn, 5.6 percent, down 0.8 percent * Polk, 5.8 percent, down 1 percent * Marion, 6.3 percent, down 1.5 percent * Sequatchie, 6.4 percent, down 0.5 percent * Grundy, 6.4 percent, down 1.2 percent * Meigs, 6.8 percent, down 0.9 percent * Bledsoe, 7.5 percent, down 1.3 percent * Rhea, 8.8 percent, down 1.4 percent Georgia * Catoosa, 4.6 percent, down 0.4 percent * Walker, 5 percent, down 0.4 percent * Dade, 5 percent, down 0.3 percent * Chattooga, 5.3 percent, down 0.4 percent * Gordon, 5.3 percent, down 0.9 percent * Whitfield, 5.8 percent, down 1.1 percent * Murray, 7 percent, down 0.8 percent Sources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor
Unemployment fell last month across Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia, but the jobless rate in Rhea County remained the highest of any of Tennessee's 95 counties.
Unemployment in metropolitan Chattanooga fell by seven- tenths of a percentage point during February to 4.9 percent as employers in the six-county area added a net 2,400 jobs during February, according to new employment figures released Thursday. The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said February's jobless rate in metro Chattanooga region matched the rate of a year ago, but remained above the U.S. jobless rate of 4.7 percent last month.
Over the past year, employers in metro Chattanooga added an estimated 4,660 jobs. But the labor force, which includes those on the job and those looking for work, grew even faster with the addition of 4,990 persons in the labor force over the past 12 months.
Metro Chattanooga includes Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie counties in Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in Northwest Georgia.
To the north of metro Chattanooga in Rhea County, employment increased by a net 80 jobs fell last month to cut the jobless rate by 1.4 percentage points to 8.8 percent. But employment in Rhea County was still down by 270 jobs from a year ago after both Goodman Manufacturing and Fujifilm Hunt shut down plants in Dayton, Tenn., last year.
Rhea County should get a boost over the next three years from a planned $26 million Innovation Center at the La-Z-Boy plant in Dayton, which is projected to add 115 jobs, and the addition of a new Rail Hub South Industrial Park just to the north of the La-Z-Boy plant on Highway 27.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development this month awarded Rhea County $6.2 million for grading of an access road to the the new 330-acre industrial park, which the city of Dayton is spending $2.5 million for property acquisitions.
"This will give us over a mile of rail footage on a site just to the north of Chattanooga with one of the biggest industrial sites in the area," said Dennis Tumlin, director of the Rhea County Economic and Community Development agency. "We are getting a lot of the prospects from Chattanooga also looking our way."
In metro Cleveland, which includes Bradley and Polk counties, the jobless rate also fell by seven-tenths of a percentage point to 4.7 percent last month, matching the U.S. rate. Cleveland is also developing a new industrial park to help add more jobs in the future.
To the south, the Georgia Department of Labor said Thursday that Dalton's jobless rate declined a full percentage point to 6.1 percent. But Dalton's rate remained one of the highest of any metro area in Tennessee, Georgia or Alabama and matched the rate of a year ago.
Unemployment in the Chattanooga region was lowest in Bradley County in Tennessee and Catoosa County in Georgia, which both had a jobless rate of 4.6 percent.
Statewide, Tennessee added 58,800 jobs over the past year. But an increase in the labor force kept the jobless rate last month at 5.3 percent, which was above the 4.7 percent rate of a year earlier.
Tennessee Labor Commissioner Burns Phillips said the higher unemployment rate was due to an influx of workers into the workforce, not any reduction in jobs.
"Our workforce is strengthened with increased opportunity, as international companies continue to invest in Tennessee and the advantages we offer," he said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.