DeKalb Jobless Rate Increases to 7.2% in January

DeKalb County’s unemployment rate for January was 7.2%, up from 5.9% in December and above the rate of 5.8% in January, 2016.
The local labor force for January, 2017 was 7,670. A total of 7,120 were employed and 550 were unemployed.
County unemployment estimates for January 2017 show the rates increased in all 95 counties.
Jobless rates for January among the fourteen counties in the Upper Cumberland region were as follows from highest to lowest:
Jackson:9.1%
Clay: 8.9%
Pickett: 8.2%
Cumberland: 8.1%
Van Buren: 7.2%
DeKalb: 7.2%
Overton: 7.2%
Fentress: 6.8%
White: 6.1%
Smith: 6%
Putnam: 5.9%
Warren: 5.6%
Macon:5.2%
Cannon:5.1%
For the month of January, Davidson County has the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate at 4.1 percent, increasing from 3.7 percent the previous month. Knox County is 4.7 percent, an increase from the previous month’s 4.2 percent. The Hamilton County rate is 5.5 percent, increasing from a previous rate of 4.8 percent. Shelby County has a 6.3 percent rate, increasing from December’s 5.6 percent.
Tennessee and the U.S. have experienced an increase in the preliminary unemployment rates for January. Tennessee’s rate is 5.4 percent, increasing from the previous month’s revised rate by three-tenths of a percentage point. An increase of one-tenth raised the U.S. preliminary rate to 4.8 percent.
The state and national unemployment rates are seasonally adjusted, while the county unemployment rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, opening and closing of schools, and other recurring seasonal events from economic time series.