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Job growth slows but unemployment still below U.S. average in Tennessee, Georgia

FILE - This April 22, 2014, file photo shows an employment application form on a table during a job fair at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y. On Thursday, June 8, 2017, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits a week earlier. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
FILE - This April 22, 2014, file photo shows an employment application form on a table during a job fair at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y. On Thursday, June 8, 2017, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits a week earlier. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File) FILE - This April 22, 2014, file photo shows an employment application form on a table during a job fair at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y. On Thursday, June 8, 2017, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits a week earlier. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

By Dave Flessner 3 min read

Despite a year-end dip in the number of workers on the job, unemployment in Tennessee and Georgia remained below the U.S. average in December after employers in the two states added more than 170,000 jobs during all of 2018.

The Tennessee jobless rate held steady at 3.6 percent last month while Georgia’s rate edge up a tenth of a percentage point to 3.6 percent. Employment rose last year to record highs in both states and their December rate was below the U.S. jobless rate of 3.7 percent in December.

Jobless in December

› 3.6 percent in Tennessee, unchanged from November› 3.6 percent in Georgia, up 0.1 percent from November› 3.7 percent nationwide, up 0.5 percent from NovemberSources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Georgia Department of Labor

Even with the decline in jobs during the last month of 2018, year-to-year statistics showed Tennessee employers created 59,100 new positions across the state. In Georgia, the number of employed residents declined by 3,015 in December, but employment in the state in the past year was still up nearly 114,00 jobs.

“It’s really something to see Tennessee employers add that many jobs in just one year’s time,” Tennessee Labor Commissioner Burns Phillips said in a report on the employment numbers Thursday. “The number of new jobs clearly shows Tennessee is one of the top states in the nation for business growth and development.”