The number of employees in the Chattanooga metro area fell slightly over the past year as private education and health jobs gained the most workers and the manufacturing sector lost the most.
The Chattanooga metro area had 296,100 nonfarm employees in May, down 200 from the year before, according to a report from the Center for Regional Economic Research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The July report, based on estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that state government jobs grew the fastest locally of any sector between May 2024 and May 2025, on a percentage basis. The private education and health jobs grew the most in terms of the raw number of jobs.
In federal surveys, nonfarm employees are on payroll in sectors that are not farming, but the category excludes people who are self-employed.
While total employment basically stayed steady, Chattanooga’s manufacturing sector led job losses with 900 fewer employees year over year, the report found.