Ninety-three of Tennessee’s 95 counties recorded unemployment rates below 5% in May, according to new Department of Labor and Workforce Development data. Two counties, Bledsoe and Scott, did have rates just above the 5% mark.
While the statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady in May at 3.3%, for the second consecutive month, individual county jobless numbers did inch up slightly in all but one county. Those numbers are not seasonally adjusted to take into account seasonal interruptions in employment, such as summer breaks for schools or severe weather events.
Moore County recorded the state’s lowest unemployment rate in May at 2.4%, which was 0.4 of a percentage point higher than the previous month. Williamson County came in with the second-lowest rate for the month at 2.5%, an increase of 0.6 of a percentage point when compared to its rate in April.
Bledsoe and Scott counties had Tennessee’s highest unemployment numbers, each with rates of 5.3%. For Bledsoe County, that added up to a 0.7 of a percentage point increase in May, while in Scott County, the rate jumped up 1.6 percentage points from 3.7% in April.
Wayne County’s unemployment rate for the month of May 2023 was 3.8%, which was a slight increase from the April rate of 3.2%. The unemployment rate in Wayne County has dropped one-tenth of a point since this time last year, when the rate was 3.9%. The data shows that Wayne County had a total labor force of 6,522 in May 2023, with 6,271 employed and 251 unemployed.
May unemployment rates in surrounding counties were similar to Wayne County’s rate. Lawrence County had a May unemployment rate of 3.5%; Lewis County came in at 3.2%; and Hardin County was slightly higher than Wayne County at 4.0%. The May unemployment rate in Perry County was the highest in Wayne’s surrounding counties, coming in at 4.7%.
