Despite growing economic worries over higher inflation and interest rates, employers continue to add jobs and boost overall employment to record highs in both Tennessee and Georgia this summer.
Unemployment fell below 3% in Georgia for the first time ever last month, while the jobless rate in Tennessee remained at a near-record low of 3.3% in June, according to data released Thursday. Over the past year, employers in Tennessee have added 130,600 jobs, boosting employment to its highest level on record in the Volunteer State. In Georgia, employment is up 246,300 from a year ago, also a record high.
“We continue to see a very strong labor market, and Tennessee continues to lead the nation in job growth,” Donald Bruce, director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, said Thursday in a telephone interview. “Unfortunately, that’s a little too strong for the Federal Reserve, which is trying to slow economic growth and inflation right now (with higher interest rates and a tighter monetary policy). We’re in a good, but not great, news environment right now with the Fed trying to cool things down.”
Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the number of Georgians on the job topped 4.8 million for the first time, reflecting continued growth in the state’s economy even with an uptick in interest rates and a downturn so far this year in the stock market.
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Tennessee employment grows to record high
“We have never seen an unemployment rate below 3%,” Butler said in a report Thursday. “The unemployment rate is decreasing exactly the way it should in a strong economy. We are adding new job seekers and they are quickly finding employment.”