Cumberland County’s jobless rate ticked up .1 of a percentage point in October, according to data recently released by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Statewide, unemployment was also up slightly for the month at 3.3%, though lower than the national jobless rate and just slightly above the all-time low unemployment rate of 3.1% last reached in August 2023.
Unlike the statewide unemployment rate, county rates are not seasonally adjusted to account for seasonal events that can impact employment.
Most Tennessee counties — 88 of Tennessee’s 95 counties — continued to see jobless rates below 5%.
Perry County reported the highest unemployment rate for October at 7.9%, an increase of 3.2 percentage points from September.
Warren County followed at 7.5%, up 3.5 percentage points from the month before.
Two of Cumberland County’s neighboring counties reported unemployment rates among the highest in the state: Van Buren County at 6% and Bledsoe County at 5.5%.
Moore and Sevier counties reported the state’s lowest unemployment rates. Moore County was at 2.6% for the month, unchanged from September. Sevier County was 2.7%, up .1 of a percentage point from the month before.
In Cumberland County, the new rate of 4.4% was up .3 percentage point from October 2022. This rate means that 1,053 people from the county’s 23,859-person labor force were without work during the month of October.
Over the past 12 months, Tennessee employers have added 40,100 jobs to the state’s workforce. The education and health services sector saw the most growth, followed by the government sector and then the other services sector.