Chattanooga shed about 10 percent fewer jobs than the U.S. economy as a whole during the Great Recession over the past two years.
But the employment losses in metropolitan Chattanooga in the current economic downturn have lasted longer than previous recessions and continued into the fourth quarter of 2009 even as production rebounded late last year, according to a Brookings Institution study released Wednesday.
PDF: Brookings Chattanooga metro monitor
“Increased economic output is juxtaposed with continued high unemployment,” said Howard Wial, a Brookings economist and a fellow with the institute’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “The recovery is still spotty and inconsistent in adding jobs.”
Unemployment in Hamilton County jumped to 10 percent in January — the highest level in 27 years. While the jobless rate hit a post-World War II high of 11.9 percent in February 1983 in Hamilton County, the recession in the 1980s was still not as prolonged as the current downtown in the Chattanooga area.