DeKalb County’s jobless rate dropped to 8.8% in October, down from 9.1% in September and nearly two percentage points below the 10.7% rate in October, 2009.
The local labor force for October was 9,880. A total of 9,000 were employed and 870 were without work.
DeKalb County’s jobless rate for the month was third lowest in the fourteen county Upper Cumberland region. Here’s how they rank from highest to lowest:
Pickett County-13%
Clay- 11.4%
White-11.4%
Fentress- 10.5%
Warren- 10.5%
Jackson- 10.4%
Van Buren 10.3%
Cannon- 9.7%
Macon- 9.7%
Cumberland-9.3%
Overton- 9.3%
DeKalb- 8.8%
Putnam- 8.4%
Smith- 7.9%
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for October was 9.4 percent, unchanged from the September rate. The national unemployment rate for October 2010 was 9.6 percent, unchanged from the September rate.
County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for October 2010, show that the rate decreased in 43 counties, increased in 38 counties and remained the same in 14 counties.
Lincoln County registered the state’s lowest county unemployment rate at 6.1 percent, up from the September rate of 6.0 percent. Scott County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 19.0 percent, down from 19.8 percent in the previous month, followed by Marshall County at 15.5 percent, down from the September rate of 15.6 percent.
Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 7.0 percent, down from 7.1 percent in September. Hamilton County was 7.8 percent, unchanged from the previous month. Davidson County was 8.7 percent, down from 9.1 percent, and Shelby County was 9.8 percent, up one-tenth of a percentage point from September.