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November unemployment rate falls as Chattanooga employers add nearly 3,600 jobs in past year

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 19, 2016, file photo, a job applicant attends a job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. The Labor Department says applications for jobless aid rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 243,000, up from a 44-year-low 223,000 the week before, on Thursday, March 9, 2017. The four-week average, which is less volatile, blipped up by 2,250 to 236,500. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, July 19, 2016, file photo, a job applicant attends a job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. The Labor Department says applications for jobless aid rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 243,000, up from a 44-year-low 223,000 the week before, on Thursday, March 9, 2017. The four-week average, which is less volatile, blipped up by 2,250 to 236,500. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

By Dave Flessner 4 min read

Jobless in November

Unemployment declined last month in all19 counties in the Chattanooga region from the previous month. The November county jobless rates were:* Catoosa – 2.8 percent, down 0.4 percent* Hamilton – 3.1 percent, down 0.5 percent* Dade – 3.1 percent, down 0.3 percent* Walker – 3.2 percent, down 0.7 percent* Franklin – 3.2 percent, down 0.4 percent* Coffee – 3.3 percent, down 0.4 percent* Bradley – 3.4 percent, down 0.3 percent* Polk – 3.8 percent, down 0.4 percent* McMinn – 3.9 percent, down 0.3 percent* Sequatchie, 4.0 percent, down 0.4 percent* Chattooga – 4.0 percent, down 0.3 percent* Whitfield – 4.0 percent, down 0.3 percent* Marion – 4.2 percent, down 0.6 percent* Grundy – 4.2 percent, down 0.5 percent* Meigs – 4.2 percent, down 0.4 percent* Murray – 4.5 percent, down 0.2 percent* Van Buren – 4.5 percent, down 0.5 percent* Rhea – 4.6 percent, down 0.4 percent* Bledsoe – 5.2 percent, down 0.9 percentSources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and Georgia Department of Labor

Chattanooga area employers added nearly 3,600 jobs over the past 12 months in metropolitan Chattanooga, helping to cut the local unemployment rate to the lowest November rate in 18 years last month.

The jobless rate in the 6-county Chattanooga area fell last month by 0.5 percentage points to 3.2 percent, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Although the pace of job growth in metro Chattanooga has fallen to less than half the torrid growth rate in 2017, Chattanooga’s non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate during November was still below both the comparable U.S. rate of 3.5 percent and the statewide rate of 3.3 percent.

The unemployment rate fell in all 95 counties in Tennessee last month, ranging from 2.5 percent in the Nashville suburb of Williamson County to 5.8 percent in the West Tennessee county of Lauderdale.

In the Chattanooga region, unemployment varied last month from a low of 2.8 percent in the Northwest Georgia county of Catoosa up to 5.2 percent in Bledsoe County north of Chattanooga. Bledsoe County had the state’s second highest unemployment rate, but it still fell nearly a full percentage point during November from 6.1 percent to 5.2 percent.