DeKalb County’s August unemployment rate was 8.2%, down from 8.6% in July and well below the 9.1% rate recorded in August, 2011.
The local labor force for August was 9,760. A total of 8,960 were employed and 800 were without work. DeKalb County tied for the third lowest unemployment rate among the fourteen counties in the Upper Cumberland region.
Here’s how they ranked from highest to lowest:
Pickett County: 12%
White County: 11.7%
Van Buren County: 11.4%
Clay County: 9.7%
Fentress County: 9.4%
Warren County: 9.3%
Jackson County: 9.0%
Overton County: 9.0%
Cumberland County: 8.9%
Macon County: 8.5%
DeKalb County:8.2%
Putnam County: 8.2%
Cannon County: 7.6%
Smith County: 7.4%
County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for August 2012 show the rate decreased in 90 counties, increased in two, and stayed the same in three.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for August increased to 8.5 percent, up from the July revised rate of 8.4 percent. The national unemployment rate for August 2012 was 8.1 percent, 0.2 percentage point lower than the July rate.
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.
Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 6.7 percent, unchanged from the July rate. Davidson County was 7.4 percent, unchanged from the previous month. Hamilton County was 7.7 percent, down from 8.4 percent, and Shelby County was 9.0 percent, down from 9.7 percent in July.
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