Highest and Lowest Tn County Unemployment Rates (Memphis, Knoxville: 2009, home)

[LauraC]

Unemployment rises in all Tenn. counties - Nashville Business Journal:

Lowest County Unemployment Rates
Jan. 2009
Rank County Rate %

1 Lincoln Co. 6.6%
2 Knox Co. 6.6%
3 Williamson Co. 6.8%
4 Sullivan Co. 6.9%
5 Davidson Co. 7.0%
6 Washington Co. 7.4%
7 Hamilton Co. 7.4%
8 Montgomery Co. 7.6%
9 Moore Co. 7.8%
10 Cheatham Co. 7.8%

Highest County Unemployment Rates
Jan. 2009
Rank County Rate (%)

95. Perry Co. 27.3%
94. Lauderdale Co. 18.6%
93. Scott Co. 17.8%
92. Lewis Co. 17.3%
91. Pickett Co. 17.1%
90. Henderson Co. 16.0%
89. Maury Co. 15.6%
88. Clay Co. 15.6%
87. Marshall Co. 15.5%
86. Overton Co. 15.5%

http://www.tennessee.gov/labor-wfd/l...2009county.pdf

[jabogitlu]

Congrats to the Tri-Cities, Knoxville, Nashville and Chatty! Looks like we're doing pretty good!

What in the world is the deal with Perry Co.?

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

Congrats to the Tri-Cities, Knoxville, Nashville and Chatty! Looks like we're doing pretty good!

What in the world is the deal with Perry Co.?

Where is Perry County? I don't think I've ever heard it mentioned before.

[mbmouse]

I don't know either, but I think the only other time I have heard it mentioned was another time when we were discussing unemployment rates and it was the highest then as well.

[JMT]

No surprise that counties in the state's metro areas are faring better than the rural counties (well, except Memphis-Shelby County, again no surprise). Lincoln County is adjacent to Huntsville AL which explains its "low" unemployment rate. Moore County is home to Jack Daniels. woohoo

Most of those with the highest unemployment rates are very rural, very isolated counties except for Maury County. Maury County is home to Columbia and Spring Hill--home to GM's Saturn plant. If that plant shuts down for good, things in Maury County aren't going to be very happy for a long, long time.

I suspect Knox County's rate will increase a bit since Goody's hadn't shut down yet when these rates came out.

[younglisa7]

Linden is the County Seat of Perry which is 65 miles west of Nashville. Well we all know where "not" to go. I would bet there are a lot of burglaries there.

My county is at 12.4% which really isn't news. We don't have many businesses here.

[MrsMtnsOnTheMind]

I wonder where Blount County stands?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by MrsMtnsOnTheMind

I wonder where Blount County stands?

Click on the link that LauraC provided in the OP. It gives the unemployment rates for all 95 of Tennessee's counties.

Blount is at 9.2%.

[MrsMtnsOnTheMind]

Originally Posted by JMT

Click on the link that LauraC provided in the OP. It gives the unemployment rates for all 95 of Tennessee's counties.

Blount is at 9.2%.

Wow, that's high.

[yarddawg]

Perry county based their economy a little too much on GM suppliers, what's happening now is a classic example of the pitfalls of a rural area riding one horse. Same kind of thing happened in several of the rural counties when the garment industry bailed after NAFTA.


Scarier to me are the numbers on the Plateau where most counties are running in the 13 - 18% range for January and it's not due to a single industry collapsing, the whole economy is just crumbling around us. There's a lot of fear at the moment and a lot of businesses hanging on by a thread. Industry, retail, you name it, it's in trouble. And as bad as the unemployment stats are they don't begin to fully state the problem. A lot of people who are technically still employed are having their hours reduced and being forced to take as much as a week off at a time without pay. I'm self-employed, which lately is a synonym for "I have a lot of free time".