DeKalb January Jobless Rate Drops to 6.9%

The DeKalb County unemployment rate for January was 6.9%, down from 7% in December and below the 9.1% rate in January, 2013.
The local labor force for January was 9,160. A total of 8,530 were employed and 630 were without work.
DeKalb County’s jobless rate for January was fourth lowest in the Upper Cumberland Region. Here is how the fourteen counties ranked from highest to lowest:
Pickett: 13.2%
Van Buren: 11.5%
Clay: 10.5%
White: 9.4%
Jackson: 9.3%
Overton: 9.3%
Cumberland:9.2%
Fentress: 8%
Warren: 7.9%
Smith: 7.5%
DeKalb: 6.9%
Macon: 6.6%
Putnam: 6.4%
Cannon: 5.1%
County unemployment rates for January 2014 show the rate decreased in 34 counties, increased in 49 counties, and remained the same in 12.
Davidson County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 5.3 percent in January, down from 5.6 percent in December. Knox County’s January rate was 5.5 percent, down from 5.7. Hamilton County was 7.1 percent, down from 7.2. Shelby County was 8.6 percent, down from 9.1.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for January was 7.2 percent, which is five tenths of one percentage point lower than the December revised rate. The national unemployment rate for January 2014 was 6.6 percent, down one tenth of one percentage point from December.
The state unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted while the county unemployment rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools, and other recurring seasonal events from economic time series.