The unemployment rate rose across Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia last month from students and graduates entering the job market.
Despite monthly gains in the number of workers on the job, the jobless rate rose in all but two of the 18 counties in the Chattanooga region during May, according to figures released Thursday by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Georgia Department of Labor.
Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler blamed the rise in unemployment on the seasonal increase in the number of people seeking employment as schools got out for the summer and new high school and college graduates entered the labor market. Those increases more than offset the gains in employment during May.
Unemployment remained the lowest in the region in the North Georgia bedroom counties of metropolitan Chattanooga — Catoosa, Dade and Walker — even though the jobless rate rose in each of those counties.
The jobless rate remained highest in the rural counties of Northwest Georgia — Murray and Chattooga. Despite the increases in jobless rates in most counties, unemployment remained below 10 percent in all area counties for only the second month in five years.