Unemployment in the Chattanooga area fell last month to match the historic lows reached last year as employers continued to hire more workers despite concerns of an economic slowdown in some sectors of the economy.
The jobless rate in metropolitan Chattanooga dropped to 2.8% in April, tying the record low reached in the nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rate last December. The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported Thursday that employers in the six-county Chattanooga metropolitan area added 7,324 jobs over the past year and employment last month was up by 43,359 jobs from the low point of the pandemic reached two years ago in Chattanooga.
To the south across Northwest Georgia, unemployment rates were even lower.
In the Dalton area, unemployment fell to 2.6% - its lowest level since 1999, when carpet mills were accused of recruiting illegal foreign workers to help staff their plants. Dalton, the self-proclaimed carpet capital of the world, has benefited from the strong housing and remodeling market and has added 1,500 jobs in the past 12 months, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.
Unemployment fell below 2% last month in both Catoosa and Dade counties and was a mere 2.1% in neighboring Walker and Gordon counties.
"As employers continue to fill their vacancies with qualified job seekers, we are encouraged to see many Georgians eager to return to the workforce," Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a report Thursday. "This dedication on the part of both employer and job seeker is what has enabled us to fill the demand for goods and services in record numbers across the state."
Jobless in April
The nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell in six counties but rose in 12 counties across the Chattanooga region during April. The nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate last month was below the U.S. average of 3.3% in most counties in the Chattanooga region.* Dade County, 1.8%, down from 2.6% in March* Catoosa County, 1.9%, down from 2.7% in March* Walker County, 2.1%, down from 2.9% in March* Gordon County, 2.1%, down from 2.8% in March* Whitfield County, 2.6%, down from 3.6% in March* Murray County, 2.6%, down from 3.7% in March* Hamilton County, 3%, up from 2.8% in March* Bradley County, 3%, unchanged from March* Coffee County, 3%, up from 2.9% in March* Franklin County, 3%, up from 2.8% in March* Polk County, 3.2%, up from 3.1% in March* Marion County, 3.3%, up from 3.1% in March* McMinn County, 3.4%, up from 3.3% in March* Rhea County, 3.5%, up from 3.4% in March* Sequatchie County, 3.5%, up from 3.4% in March* Meigs County, 3.6%, unchanged from March* Van Buren County, 4%, up from 3.7% in March* Grundy County, 4.2%, up from 4% in March* Chattooga County, 4.2%, up from 4.1% in March* Bledsoe County, 4.7%, up from 4.3% in MarchSources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate remained below the comparable U.S. unemployment rate of 3.3% last month in most counties in the Chattanooga region. But the jobless rate was 4% or higher in four area counties, and Bledsoe County's 4.7% jobless rate in April ranked as the third highest among all 95 counties in Tennessee.
Employment levels, which shrank during the pandemic as some businesses shut down and other workers dropped out of the labor force, have grown above their pre-pandemic highs in the Chattanooga area. Tennessee career centers Thursday were advertising 473,584 open jobs, or more than four times as many jobs as the number of persons counted as unemployed across the state last month.
ChattanoogaCalling.com, a website created by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce to help lure workers to the area to fill vacant positions, was listing 36,169 open jobs Thursday, or nearly five times as many as the 7,736 persons counted as unemployed in metropolitan Chattanooga in April.
Many of the vacant jobs may not align with the skills of those out of work and looking for a job, but employers in the current market appear to be less likely to lay off workers now on staff.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that new U.S. jobless claims fell by 8,000 last week to 210,000, signaling that layoffs still remain rare and the economy is still growing despite higher interest rates and supply chain problems.
Applications for unemployment benefits fell to a 54-year low of 166,000 in March and have hovered near 200,000 since the beginning of the year, government figures show.
"There has been a lot of noise in the claims data recently, but the [report] suggests that not much has really changed in the labor market," money market economist Thomas Simons of Jefferies said in a report Thursday. "Demand for labor is strong, layoff activity is low and conditions are tight."
Adam McCann, a financial writer for the personal finance website WalletHub.com, said job seekers in most cities will have better luck landing a summer job this year.
"With states having mostly removed their COVID-19 restrictions, and vaccines and booster doses continuing to be distributed, people can find summer jobs in industries that are returning to full capacity, like dining, entertainment and tourism," he said in a new report on summer jobs. "Many employers are also desperate to hire, which gives applicants leverage to get better compensation."
WalletHub ranks Chattanooga slightly above average among the nation's biggest cities. Chattanooga ranked 66th among the top 180 metro markets in the outlook for summer jobs, according to WalletHub.com.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340. Follow on Twitter at @dflessner1.