Unemployment in the Chattanooga area remained unchanged last month at 5.9 percent, five-tenths of a percentage point above the comparable U.S. jobless rate in December.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said today that unemployment in Hamilton County was unchanged at 6.4 percent, but joblessness edged up two-tenths of a percent in the North Georgia counties of Catoosa, Dade and Walker to average 5.3 percent. In the six-county Chattanooga area, 235,570 persons were on the job last month, while 15,260 were unemployed.
Unemployment in Tennessee was lowest in Lincoln and Williamson counties in Middle Tennessee at 4.4 percent and highest in Scott County in East Tennessee at 13.1 percent.
Chattanooga's jobless rate remained below the statewide jobless rate of 6.6 percent in December.
Knox County had the state's lowest major metropolitan rate in December at 5.0 percent, down from 5.1 percent in November. Davidson County was 5.1 percent in December, down from 5.2 the previous month.