Unemployment rates decrease in 94 counties

Tennessee’s unemployment rate for September decreased to 8.3 percent, down from the August revised rate of 8.5 percent. The national unemployment rate for September 2012 was 7.8 percent, 0.3 percentage point lower than the August rate.

Trousdale County was part of the 94 counties that saw a decrease in September. With 7.1 percent, Trousdale saw a full point drop from its August percentage of 8.1, and a 2.8 percent drop from this time last year.
The state unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted while the county unemployment rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools and other recurring seasonal events from economic time series.

Monroe County was the only county to see an increase with a 0.1 bump increase in September.

Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 5.9 percent, down from the August rate of 6.7 percent. Davidson County was 6.6 percent, down from 7.4 percent. Hamilton County was 7.1 percent, down from 7.7 percent, and Shelby County was 8.5 percent, down from 8.9 percent in August.

Williamson County beat out Lincoln County for the lowest rate in Tennessee with 5.2 percent, while Hardeman County is the highest at 10.9 percent.

Wilson County was 6.2 percent, down 0.7 percent from the previous month. Sumner County was 6.4, down from the 7.2 percent; Smith dropped to 7.1 percent from August's 7.4 percent; and Macon County also dropped to 8.2 percent from August's 8.6 percentage.