The DeKalb County unemployment rate for February was 8%, down from 8.6% in January and below the rate of 8.4% in February, 2012.
The local labor force for February was 9,510. A total of 8,740 were employed and 760 were unemployed..
DeKalb County’s February unemployment rate was fourth lowest among the fourteen counties of the Upper Cumberland Region.
Here’s how they ranked from highest to lowest:
Pickett County: 13.1%
Van Buren County: 11.7%
White County: 11.5%
Clay County: 10.8%
Jackson County: 10.2%
Cumberland County: 10.2%
Warren County: 9.6%
Fentress County: 9.5%
Overton County: 9.5%
Smith County: 8.5%
DeKalb County: 8%
Macon County: 7.9%
Putnam County: 7.7%
Cannon County: 6.9%
County unemployment rates for February 2013 show the rate decreased in 87 counties, increased in five, and stayed the same in three.
Davidson County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 6.3 percent, down from 6.5 percent in January. Knox County’s February rate of 6.4 percent was down from 6.5 percent in the prior month. Hamilton County was 7.7 percent, down from 8.0 percent, and Shelby County was 9.3 percent, down from 9.7 percent in January.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for February was 7.8 percent, which increased one tenth of one percentage point from the January revised rate of 7.7 percent. The national unemployment rate for February 2013 was 7.7 percent, decreasing by two tenths of one percent from the previous month.
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.