Buoyed by an influx of hiring at Amazon’s new distribution centers in Hamilton and Bradley counties, unemployment in metropolitan Chattanooga fell last month to the lowest level in nearly three years.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said the six-county area added 2,100 jobs during October, cutting the monthly jobless rate below 8 percent for the first time since the end of 2008.
Unemployment in metro Chattanooga fell by eight-tenths of a percent down to 7.9 percent, the lowest since December 2008. Over the past year, employment in metro Chattanooga has grown by more than 1.7 percent, or nearly double the U.S. job growth in the same period.
“The number of persons in the workforce nationally is staying fairly stable or even declining. But in Tennessee, it is growing rather rapidly,” said William Fox, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. “When you are creating more jobs like what is happening in Chattanooga, that tends to draw more people who are seeking jobs and encourages many of those who have been out of work to get back in the workforce.”
Darrius Robinson, a 23-year-old Chattanoogan who has been out of work for the past six months, was just hired this week to start working at Amazon next week.