Tennessee’s unemployment rate remains at a record low

FILE - This April 22, 2014, file photo shows an employment application form on a table during a job fair at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y. The Labor Department said Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017, that 244,000 Americans applied for jobless aid last week, up by 6,000 from the previous week.(AP Photo/Mike Groll, File) FILE - This April 22, 2014, file photo shows an employment application form on a table during a job fair at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y. The Labor Department said Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017, that 244,000 Americans applied for jobless aid last week, up by 6,000 from the previous week.(AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

By Dave Flessner May 16, 2019 4 min read

Everybody who has skills and wants a job in this economy has one.

Unemployment across Tennessee remained at an historic low last month after employers added 51,600 jobs over the past year in the state.

Jobless in April

* 3.2% in Tennessee, unchanged from the previous month* 3.8% in Georgia, down 0.1% from the previous month* 3.6% in the United States as a whole, down 0.2 percent from the previous monthSources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

For the third consecutive month, Tennessee’s unemployment rate in April remained at 3.2% – well below the U.S. jobless rate last month of 3.6% and the lowest rate since the government has kept comparable statistics in the 1960s.

“At this point, everybody who has skills and wants a job in this economy has one,” said Dr. Bill Fox, director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. “Job growth continues to be very, very strong even in the face of a very tight labor market.”