Timothy Goines, left, has help from Adrian Craighead while looking for jobs on the computer at the Tennessee Employment Service Office at Eastgate Center in Brainerd in this file photo.The number of employed Tennesseans rose slightly in August, though economists downgraded the state’s economic outlook in light of projections that point to high levels of long-term unemployment.
A report released Thursday by the University of Tennessee projects that both state and national joblessness will linger above 9 percent until 2013, and the state’s rate “will surpass the national unemployment rate through the short-term forecast horizon,” said economist Matt Murray, associate director for the UT Center for Business and Economic Research.
August unemployment in Tennessee fell to 9.7 percent, down from 9.8 percent in July and well above national unemployment, which remained unchanged for the month at 9.1 percent. The Chattanooga area continues to remain a bright spot despite statewide problems, though unemployment in the metropolitan area ticked up in August, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Chattanooga’s metro unemployment rate clocked in at 8.8 percent in August, up two-tenths of a percent from July.
Knoxville had the lowest unemployment of any other major metro area in Tennessee, at just 7.9 percent, while Union City had the highest, 17.2 percent.