Unemployment fell to a seven-month low in the Chattanooga area last month, although household surveys by the Bureau of Labor Statistics continued to show a lack of job growth in the region.
State agencies in both Tennessee and Georgia on Thursday reported lower jobless rates across Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia during September. But the decline was largely because of a decline in the number of people seeking jobs, rather than gains in overall employment.
In the 6-county Chattanooga metropolitan area, unemployment fell in September to 6.4 percent, down from 7.3 percent the previous month. Joblessness fell even more in the 2-county metropolitan area of Dalton, plunging by 1.7 percentage points to 9 percent. In metro Cleveland, Tenn., which includes Bradley and Polk Counties, the jobless rate fell in September by 0.8 percent to 6.2 percent.
Despite the job gains, unemployment still was above the U.S. average of 5.9 percent in 16 of the 18 counties in the Chattanooga trade area. The regional jobless rate was lowest in Tennessee in Franklin County and lowest in Georgia in Catoosa County.
Unemployment was highest in Murray County in Georgia and Van Buren County in Tennessee. But last month was the one of the first in five years in which no county in the region had double-digit unemployment.