Unemployment fell last month in Tennessee to its lowest level in eight months as businesses continued to rebound from the shutdowns this spring caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Tennessee employers added 2,100 net new jobs during November to help reduce the state’s unemployment rate from 7.3% in October to only 5.3% last month. Tennessee’s unemployment rate was below both the comparable U.S. jobless rate, which declined last month by only 0.2% to 6.7%, and the jobless rate in neighboring Georgia, which rose 1.2 percentage points during November to 5.7%.
From its record peak of 15% in April, Tennessee’s jobless rate has dropped by nearly 65% this year.
Total employment in retail trade in Tennessee last month was actually up by 3,300 jobs from a year ago and smaller job gains were recorded in some finance and transportation and finance jobs over the past year, even with the pandemic.
But the virus has devastated the restaurant and hospitality industry where employment last month was down by 35,500 from a year ago. Jobs in arts, entertainment and recreation fields are still down by 24.3% from levels of a year ago, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.