Unemployment rates in 41 counties are now less than 5%. Fifty-four counties recorded rates of 5% or higher during the month.
Williamson County had the lowest unemployment rate. At 3.3%, its November rate dropped by 1.3 percentage points when compared to October. The new rate is just 1 percentage point higher than it was in November 2019.
Lake County recorded the highest jobless rate in November, but it still experienced a significant drop in unemployment. The county’s new rate is 8.1%, down 2 percentage points when compared to October.
Statewide, Tennessee experienced significantly lower unemployment during the month. The preliminary, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November is 5.3%, a 2 percentage point drop from October’s revised rate of 7.3%. The new statistic is just 2 percentage points higher than the state’s unemployment rate one year ago in November.
Wayne County’s unemployment rate for the month of November came in at 5.8 percent, a significant drop from the October rate of 7.7 percent. The unemployment rate in Wayne County was still quite a bit higher than it was in November 2019, when it was 4.5 percent. The data shows that Wayne County had a total labor force of 6,384 in November 2020, with 6,014 employed and 370 unemployed.
November 2020 unemployment rates in surrounding counties were in the same range as Wayne County, with Lawrence County coming in at 4.9 percent, Perry County at 6.4 percent, and Hardin County the same as Wayne at 5.8 percent.
The state offers online options for Tennesseans searching for employment. Currently, on the state’s workforce development website, Jobs4TN.gov, job seekers can find more than 230,000 open positions in a wide range of occupations and skill levels.
TDLWD recently launched the Tennessee Virtual American Job Center (VAJC). The new website located at www.TNVirtualAJC.com allows Tennesseans to research different programs, from different state agencies, that can help them remove barriers to employment so they can more easily reenter Tennessee’s workforce.
