Best Place in TN (Jefferson City: to rent, day care, home)

[JMT]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

You're right, I didn't know that. Looks like it was over 10% in October, with a peak of over 11% back in the summer. Chattanooga's Oct is 8.9%, peaking at 9.7% in the summer. Knoxville's is 8.4% (Oct) peaking in June at 9.3. [bls.gov]

The overall unemployment for 'The South' is 9.5 as of October. I'm not sure how the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines The South, though.

(As an aside, looks like the Tri-Cities is hovering around 9.05, which is an average of both the JC Metropolitan area and the Kingsport-Bristol MSA. Morristown is at 12.1 )

I hope you're right about the VW plant. Tennessee has some nice cities, but it's time we got in on the real action as far as (re)development and growth is concerned. Not a popular idea with many people, but I'd love to see a city in east TN that could compete with Greenville or Birmingham.

I don't know. Greenville's unemployment rate is even higher, 10.8%, and Birmingham's isn't much better, 9.9%. Greenville has experienced a lot more growth over the last few years than most of Tennessee, but Birmingham hasn't. Even Memphis has grown faster than Birmingham.

Clarksville has grown rapidly, but it's largely because of the military which has beefed up Fort Campbell quite a bit. I don't mean to imply that it's a bad place, just that it seems that a lot of people who move to Clarksville are kind of forced to (military families). That new $1.2 billion semiconductor plant in Clarksville will definitely help its economic prospects.

In the last 20 years or so about half of Tennessee's growth has taken place in metro Nashville, turning places like Murfreesboro, Franklin, and Hendersonville into boomtowns. While I love the city of Nashville, I tend to prefer the more moderate growth that's taken place in Knoxville. It's been growing fast enough to be healthy but slow enough to be manageable and without the traffic issues that Nashville has experienced.

[sassykat&joe]

Originally Posted by JMT

I don't know. Greenville's unemployment rate is even higher, 10.8%.

ummm... I think the person was actually referring to Greenville, South Carolina. Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, is one of the big growth areas for SC. Is the one in TN, actually spelled 'Greeneville?'

[JMT]

Originally Posted by sassykat&joe

ummm... I think the person was actually referring to Greenville, South Carolina. Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, is one of the big growth areas for SC. Is the one in TN, actually spelled 'Greeneville?'

ummm... I was referring to Greenville, South Carolina, too.

Spartanburg's unemployment rate is 12.5%.

Unemployment Rates for Metropolitan Areas

Greeneville TN's unemployment rate is 14.1%.

[jabogitlu]

Yes, I was referring to Greenville SC.

I don't know where Birmingham came from, JMT. I guess I had a brain fart (and I was writing about B'ham earlier). I actually meant to refer to Huntsville. The unemployment rate stands at 7.9% with a peak of 8.2%.

However, I didn't know that Greenville-Spartanburg's % was so high. Guess I got caught with my pants down there.

[hiknapster]

A lot of people think that Greenville, SC's unemployment rate is good. It's a huge misconception. Numerous people have said to me that Greenville has a low unemployment rate. I roll out the same chart that JMT does, and they are shocked.

JMT, those are exactly the reasons that I stayed away from Nashville. The pay wasn't much better than Knoxville, the cost of living was higher and it was too crowded with higher crime and far too many transplants. That's the same reason that I avoided Charlotte, NC like the plague. In 2005 I could see that Nashville (Murfreesboro) and Charlotte were going to become "the next big thing." No thank you.

[jabogitlu]

Charlotte's already there. If it were to incorporate city-county it would be 200k bigger than Nashville and the metro area is quite a big larger. But I agree that Nashville will continue to grow quickly in the short term, and maybe long term depending on how fast (or if ) the recession goes away.

And so if the OP is looking to avoid a city that is growing quickly, one might want to look at:

City / City Pop Change 2000-08 / MSA Pop Change 2000-08
Chattanooga / 15k / 42k
Knoxville / 10k / 75k
Tri-Cities / 5k* / 20k [Tri-Cities CSA]

*6000[JC]-(1000)[Kingsport]+0[Bristol TN/VA]


(For reference, Nashville added 55k to its city-county population and 240k to its MSA between 2000 and 2008. And since this is a TN thread in general I'll add-in that Memphis gained 19k city and 80k metro.)

[CandRach2]

I figure looking for work down there wouldn't be too hard, as in I'm in child care. So I don't think it'd be too hard. What do you think?

[2mares]

Have you looked at the job openings in child care in the areas you are interested in?
I think I would not make a major move without having a job first.

[jabogitlu]

I used to have friends in childcare (they ran a church-affiliated daycare). Just from seeing what they did I would say there's a fair turnover rate but also a very LOW pay rate in childcare here in NETN unless you get into a handful of prestigious centers or are licensed and can get into a school's Pre-K program.

Also around here I believe this career is very much WYK (who you know)!

[hiknapster]

Wherever I have lived, including the northeast, child care is very low-paying. And from what I understand, daycares have taken a hit, across the country. But it will depend on how well the area is doing. Common sense tells you that as long as people are working, they are in need of childcare. But this is a recession. Knoxville may have more jobs than most, but I wouldn't suggest anyone move without having a job, right now. How do you apply for an apartment without employment?