Unemployment Continues to Drop Across Tennessee

Statewide Unemployment Rate Decreases for Second Consecutive Month in July

NASHVILLE – Tennessee’s unemployment rate decreased in June for the second consecutive month after reaching an all-time high in April, according to preliminary data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The June 2020 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 9.7%, down 1.3 percentage points from May’s revised rate of 11%.

One year ago, the rate was 3.4%, very near the state’s all-time low unemployment rate of 3.3%.

Tennessee experienced record-high unemployment in April when the jobless number spiked to 15.5% at the height of business closures due to the COVID-19 health emergency. Before the pandemic, the state’s previous record-setting unemployment rate was 12.9% in January 1983.

Between May and June, the state’s employers added 108,500 nonfarm jobs. The top three sectors for job creation across Tennessee were leisure/hospitality, government, and education and health services.

As the state slowly reopens, employers are creating new job opportunities, but there is still a deficit when comparing year-to-year data. From June 2019 through June 2020, Tennessee lost 154,000 positions. The largest decrease came in the leisure/hospitality sector, followed by the manufacturing sector, and then the professional/business services sector.

Nationally, seasonally adjusted unemployment dropped by 2.2 percentage points in June, going from 13.3% to 11.1%.

You can access a complete analysis of Tennessee’s June unemployment data here.

Tennessee employers are hiring. Job seekers can find more than 190,000 current job openings on the state’s workforce development website, www.Jobs4TN.gov. Tennesseans can also find free assistance with improving job search skills, updating resumes, and job training opportunities on the site.

The state will release unemployment data for each of Tennessee’s 95 counties at 1:30 p.m. CT Thursday, July 23, 2020.