Resources
› Think Tennessee:http://thinktennessee.org› The Beacon Center of Tennessee:http://www.beacontn.org› Tennessee distressed counties:https://www.tn.gov/transparenttn/jobs-economic-development/openecd/tnecd-performance-metrics/openecd-long-term-objectives-quick-stats/distressed-counties.html› Governor’s Rural Task Force Report:https://www.tn.gov/ruraltaskforce/rural-task-force-links/download-the-task-force-report.html› Tennessee employment statistics:https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.tn.htm› Tennessee Four-Year Appalachian Development Plan:https://www.arc.gov/images/grantsandfunding/StatePlans/Tennessee2016AppalachianDevelopmentPlan.pdf› Tennessee Economic Development statistics:https://www.tn.gov/transparenttn/jobs-economic-development/openecd/tnecd-performance-metrics.html
For many Tennesseans, the pain and financial loss of the 2008 recession have faded.
The state’s unemployment rate – 3.4 percent in March – is the lowest in the Southeast United States. Household income and the state’s gross domestic product are at their highest points, and Tennessee continues to attract high quality jobs that pay more than the county’s median wage.
But economic prosperity has been concentrated around Tennessee’s metropolitan areas, and nearly half of the state’s 95 counties are classified as “distressed” (15 counties) or “at-risk” (29), based on economic performance indicators tracked by the Appalachian Regional Commission. ARC uses the three-year average unemployment rate, per capita market income and the poverty rate to determine the economic status of the nation’s counties.
ARC categorizes U.S. counties in the bottom 10 percent as distressed.