Bill FoxThe share of Tennessee adults with jobs fell last year by the biggest amount of any state in the country, according to a new federal report.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that only 55.6 percent of those over the age of 16 in Tennessee had jobs in 2013, down 1.1 percent from the 56.7 percent with jobs in the previous year.
Georgia also saw a slight dip last year in its employment-population ratio, falling 0.1 percent to 57.9 percent, BLS said.
Nationwide, an estimated 58.6 percent of adults had jobs in 2013, unchanged from the previous year.
The share of adults working is at at three-decade low as more adults are retired, more students are staying in school longer and unemployment remains at historically high levels. Many persons have simply dropped out of the labor force, economists said.