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Tennessee, Georgia jobless rates fall as employers add jobs

Photo by Dave Flessner / Panara Bread on Market Street in downtown Chattanooga, like most restaurants, is seeking to hire more workers and is boosting pay as unemployment rates and labor force participation levels decline.
Photo by Dave Flessner / Panara Bread on Market Street in downtown Chattanooga, like most restaurants, is seeking to hire more workers and is boosting pay as unemployment rates and labor force participation levels decline. Photo by Dave Flessner / Panara Bread on Market Street in downtown Chattanooga, like most restaurants, is seeking to hire more workers and is boosting pay as unemployment rates and labor force participation levels decline.

By Dave Flessner 4 min read

Unemployment dropped to an all-time low in Georgia last month while Tennessee’s jobless rate during October fell to its lowest level since before the pandemic hit 19 months ago.

According to job figures released Thursday, the unemployment rate across Georgia declined by two-tenths of a percentage point during October to 3.1%, the lowest rate since tracking began.

Tennessee’s jobless rate also declined by two-tenths of a percentage point last month to 4.2% – the lowest since March 2020.

Unemployment in both states was well below the U.S. jobless rate of 4.6%.

“We’ve seen a remarkably strong recovery over the past year and a half, and we expect unemployment rates will get even lower,” said Bill Fox, director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee.