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Tennessee jobless rate hits all time low

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, file photo, job applications and information for the Gap Factory Store sit on a table during a job fair at Dolphin Mall in Miami. On Thursday, March 30, 2017, the Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment aid dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose to 254,250.(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, file photo, job applications and information for the Gap Factory Store sit on a table during a job fair at Dolphin Mall in Miami. On Thursday, March 30, 2017, the Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment aid dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose to 254,250.(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, file photo, job applications and information for the Gap Factory Store sit on a table during a job fair at Dolphin Mall in Miami. On Thursday, March 30, 2017, the Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment aid dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose to 254,250.(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

By Dave Flessner 3 min read

Jobless in September

› 3 percent: Tennessee unemployment rate, down 0.3 percent› 4.2 percent: U.S. average unemployment rate, down 0.2 percent› 4.5 percent: Georgia unemployment rate, down 0.2 percentSources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor

Unemployment in Tennessee fell to another historic low last month as employers across the state added 44,200 jobs over the past year to push unemployment in the Volunteer State to a mere 3 percent of the workforce.

Tennessee’s jobless rate, which was well below the comparable U.S. rate of 4.2 percent or Georgia’s 4.5 percent rate in September, was the lowest monthly rate in Tennessee since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the information in January of 1976.

“I think Tennessee will continue to keep growing even as we are getting close to full employment now,” said Dr. Bill Fox, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. “The state has done a really good job of attracting businesses to Tennessee, but local businesses are doing well also. Tennessee is enjoying some of the best growth in tax revenues and some of the lowest rates of unemployment right now in the Southeast.”

Employment grew by about 1.5 percent in the past 12 months across Tennessee, outpacing the 0.8 percent growth in the state’s workforce. Those changes combined to cut the jobless rate from 4.9 percent a year ago to 3 percent last month.