PDF: February 2010 county unemployment WHAT’S NEXTThe U.S. Department of Labor will release the U.S. jobless rate for March at 8:30 a.m. today. Forecasters expect to see no change from the 9.7 percent rate in February.
Unemployment in the Chattanooga area fell during February from its recession high at the start of the year, suggesting that the worst of the recession may be over.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported Thursday that the jobless rate in the six-county Chattanooga metropolitan area fell by 0.2 percent during February to 9.8 percent. In neighboring metro Cleveland, Tenn., unemployment dropped in February by a comparable amount to 10.4 percent.
“The employment data seems to be saying that the labor market bottomed out at the beginning of the year and we’re beginning to see slight job increases,” said Dr. William Fox, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. “But the unemployment rate may still stay stubbornly high as more people come into the work force as labor conditions seem to improve.”
For all of 2010, Dr. Fox expects Tennessee’s jobless rate will hover around 10 percent, only slightly below the nonseasonally adjusted rate of 11.4 percent in February.