Chattanooga, once billed as “the Dynamo of Dixie” for its manufacturing strength, shed nearly one of every three factory jobs over the past decade – most of them during the recession that began crippling the economy in 2007.
A new economic study by the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies said Hamilton County suffered its worst job losses in modern times during the recent recession, losing 18,499 jobs in manufacturing, transportation and construction from 2001 through 2009.
“In many ways, this was a lost decade for job growth, not only in the hardest-hit areas like manufacturing and construction but in a whole array of other sectors of the state economy,” said Matt Murray, a University of Tennessee economist who serves as associated director of the Center for Business and Economic Growth in Knoxville.
“The length and depth of this wrenching recession, combined with the jobless recovery we had following the last recession in 2001 and 2002, created a perfect storm,” he said.
But while most industries were battered by adverse economic winds of change, jobs in heath care grew at a very healthy pace, jumping by nearly 53 percent, or 7,525 jobs in Hamilton County, the report shows. And so far this year, manufacturing employment is showing signs of growth both in Chattanooga and across Tennessee.