Unemployment fell last month in the Chattanooga region to its lowest level in more than two decades as employers scrambled to fill nearly four times as many job openings as the number of workers still in the labor force without a job.
Employers in metro Chattanooga added nearly 4,300 jobs over the past year but fewer workers were in the labor market during October than were working or looking for a job a year earlier. The combination of more jobs and fewer workers cut the jobless rate to 2.9% in Chattanooga – tying the lowest rate since March 2001.
Just to the south in the Carpet Capital, unemployment in the Dalton metropolitan area dropped to 2.2% – the lowest since 1999. Two counties on the Tennessee border in Northwest Georgia – Catoosa and Walker – had one of the lowest jobless rates of any counties in the South last month at 1.7%, and their neighboring Georgia and Alabama counties also all had unemployment rates well below 3%.
“We’re beyond full employment [where everyone wanting a job can find one] at these levels,” said Jeffrey Humphreys, the director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia. “This reflects the strength of the rebound in manufacturing activities, especially in the housing and construction industries, which we are seeing in Dalton right now. Manufacturing centers like Dalton are leading the economic recovery right now, and Dalton is the best example of a manufacturing hub in Georgia.”
When the COVID-19 virus first shut down many businesses and factories last year, the unemployment rate in Dalton jumped to a record high of 19.8% in April 2020. The strong demand for floor-covering products amid a wave of remodeling and home construction during the pandemic has more than restored the jobs temporarily idled at local carpet mills.