Jobless rates rise in area counties in June

Unemployment rates rose across the Chattanooga region in June as students flooded into the labor market for the summer and seasonal school jobs ended.

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Thursday that seasonal factors pushed up the non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate in metropolitan Chattanooga last month to 6.2 percent, up from 5.7 percent in May. The six-county metro area added 8,240 jobs over the past year, however, and last month's unemployment rate in the area was still 1.3 percentage points below where it was a year ago.

The jobless rate in metropolitan Dalton last month was 6.8 percent, up two-tenths of a percentage point from 6.6 percent in May. The rate in June 2014 was 8.6 percent. While the number of jobs in Dalton was unchanged at 68,700 from May to June, they increased by 2,100, or 3.2 percent, from 66,600 in June 2014. The Georgia Department of Labor said the job gains came in manufacturing and the service-related industries, including trade, transportation and warehousing and professional and business services.

Unemployment in metropolitan Cleveland rose by eight-tenths of a percentage point in June to 6.4 percent.

Across the region, June jobless rates were lowest in Catoosa County in Northwest Georgia at 5.6 percent and highest in the rural Southeast Tennessee county of Bledsoe at 9 percent.