Unemployment across Tennessee and Georgia remained at the lowest level on record last month as jobless rates in both states dropped by nearly 80% from the record heights reached two years ago.
The jobless rate during April was 3.2% in Tennessee and 3.1% in Georgia, according to employment figures released Thursday. Both states reported unemployment levels below the U.S. rate of 3.6% last month.
(READ MORE: Unemployment in Tennessee falls to an all-time low)
Last month's record-low jobless rates were in stark contract to the highs reached during the worst of the pandemic in April 2020, when Tennessee's unemployment rate rose to a record high of 15.9% and Georgia's jobless rate topped out at 12.3%.
Employers in Tennessee and Georgia have since added back all of the jobs lost during the pandemic and pushed employment to a new high in both states.
"Employment exceeding pre-pandemic levels is an important milestone for our state," Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said in a report on the state's economy. "As the economy resets, we are seeing more companies choosing to make Tennessee their new home."
New business filings in the first quarter of 2022 grew 8.7% from first-quarter filings in 2021, marking 42 consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth. Over 77,000 new businesses filed over the past year, and 21,353 new entities filed in the first quarter of 2022.
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Jobless in April
* 3.1% in Georgia, unchanged from March* 3.2% in Tennessee, unchanged from March* 3.6% in the U.S. as whole, down from 3.8% in MarchSources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Initial business filing in Hamilton County during the first quarter of 2022 rose 6.2% from a year ago to 1,141, Hargett's office reported.
Bill Fox, director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, said growth in business filings typically leads to growth in jobs, personal income and state revenue.
"Everywhere you look, there's evidence that the strong economic momentum in Tennessee isn't slowing down," Fox said in a report this week. "Tax revenues are up; personal incomes are up. Our growing economy is not only beneficial to Tennesseans, but attractive to others wanting to move here, too."
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Over the past 12 months, Tennessee employers added 145,600 nonfarm jobs. The leisure and hospitality sector created the largest percentage of those jobs, followed by the trade, transportation, and utilities sector and the professional and business services sector.
Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Georgia's trade and transportation sector exceeded 1 million jobs for the first time in the state's history during April after adding 11,600 jobs last month. More than 500,000 of these jobs come from the retail trade sector, including Walmart, Kroger, Home Depot and Publix – the biggest retailers in Georgia. Retail trade was one of the top five sectors hit the hardest during the pandemic, losing almost 65,000 jobs in Georgia at the height of COVID-19.
"We have seen a tremendous rebound in the trade and transportation sector here in Georgia, with some of our biggest job gains concentrated in the retail trade market," Butler said in Thursday's jobs report. "Much of that growth stems from strong consumer demand for goods and services, as seen in additional job increases in accommodation and food services and administrative and support services."
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Despite the improving employment market, manufacturing wages slipped slightly in Tennessee last month, with the average hourly rate dropping by 24 cents an hour to $22.20 an hour and the average workweek dropping by 1.4 hours to 42.7 hours.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday a slight increase in the number of initial claims filed for jobless benefits due to recent layoffs. Applications for unemployment benefits rose by 21,000 to 218,000 for the week ending May 14. In the Chattanooga area, both Waupaca Foundry in Etowah and U.S. Xpress Enterprises in Chattanooga have announced employee layoffs during the past month due to changing business conditions.
But the labor department said the total number of Americans getting unemployment benefits remained at a 53-year low last week, with many of those getting such benefits finding other jobs amid the robust hiring market.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340. Follow him on Twitter @dflessner1.
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