One of every 10 Chattanooga workers lost his or her job in April, pushing up the unemployment rate in metro Chattanooga last month to a record 13.3% amid the coronavirus pandemic that shut down much of the local economy this spring.
Although the local jobless rate remained below both the state and national averages of 14.7% in April, unemployment in the six-county Chattanooga metro area jumped by 10% last month to surpass the worst jobless rates reached during any recession in the post World War II era.
The number of unemployed persons in the Chattanooga area more than tripled during April from the estimated 10,344 in March to 36,412 last month and the continuing rise in jobless claims during May suggests that the number of unemployed could still go higher.
With most restaurants and retail stores and many factories idled in April, employment in Chattanooga had the biggest single month drop on record. Preliminary figures show the number of employed persons fell by more than 34,000 during April as the workforce shrank and more people filed for unemployment benefits.
“We are in unprecedented times with such a sudden drop in employment and I’m afraid with the additional jobless claims we’re seeing in May the jobless rate could go even higher before starting to decline,” Dr. Bill Fox, director of the Boyd Center for Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, said last week.