Unemployment Rates Up Slightly For Jefferson County

The Department of Labor and Workforce Development has released unemployment numbers for October and Jefferson County has posted a 9% unemployment rate. That number is up slightly from the September rate of 8.8%, making Jefferson County one of sixty four Counties that showed an increase in unemployment from September 2012 to October 2012. Overall, Tennessee posted a lower unemployment rate with the State coming in at 8.3% in September 2012 and 8.2% in October 2012. Though the State rate is decreasing, it is still above the National average of 7.9%. Nationally, unemployment rose .01% in October 2012. Knox County maintained its status as the lowest unemployment rate in a metropolitan area with a 5.9% unemployment rate. That rate was unchanged from September 2012 to October 2012. In Tennessee, fourteen Counties showed a decrease in their October unemployment rate while 17 remain at status quo. In the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Jefferson, Hamblen and Grainger Counties, only Hamblen County showed a decrease in unemployment improving from a 9.4% rate in September 2012 to a 9.2% rate in October 2012. Jefferson County has seen a significant drop in unemployment in comparison to October 2011, when the County posted a 10.5% unemployment rate. Hamblen County has remained relatively steady in their unemployment rate since October 2011 posting a 9.6% rate at that time. Grainger County carried a 10.7% unemployment rate in 2011 and that number has moved only slightly to a 10.5% rate in October 2012.