| OC finally out of top 10 jobless list | | Posted: Friday, May 24, 2013 10:18 pm
| | By KEVIN BOWDEN
Staff Reporter
For the first time in the last 21 months, Obion County’s unemployment rate is not among the top 10 highest rates in the state.
It was in August 2011 that the county’s jobless rate spiked to 16.6 percent following the shutdown of the local Goodyear plant. Ever since, the county has been ranked among the counties with the highest unemployment rates in the state.
Now, the state has released its April unemployment report and Obion County’s 11.5 percent jobless rate is ranked just outside the 10 counties with the highest unemployment rates in the state.
The county’s April unemployment rate translates to 1,610 people out of work that month.
Elsewhere across northwest Tennessee:
• Weakley County’s April jobless rate was 10.8 percent, with 1,700 people unemployed that month.
• Lake County’s April jobless rate was 10.7 percent, with 300 people unemployed that month.
• Dyer County’s April jobless rate was 11.3 percent, with 1,910 people unemployed that month.
• Gibson County’s jobless rate was 12.4 percent, with 2,590 people unemployed that month.
Of the 10 counties in Tennessee with the highest April unemployment rates, four are in West Tennessee — Lauderdale, Gibson, Carroll and Henderson counties — according to the state report.
Tennessee’s April unemployment was 8 percent.
April was a good month for Tennessee, in terms of the unemployment rate. The jobless rate decreased in 62 of the state’s 95 counties. The jobless rate increased in 23 counties and remained unchanged in 10 counties. The jobless rate was less than 10 percent in 59 counties across the state.
Meanwhile, state officials in Kentucky recently released their April jobless report that showed Fulton County had the commonwealth’s third highest unemployment rate at 15.6 percent.
Of the eight counties that make up the Purchase Area Development District, Fulton County was the only county with double-digit unemployment in April. The county’s jobless rate translates to 2,101 people out of work that month, according to the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training.
The unemployment rate dropped in 49 of Kentucky’s 112 counties in April.
Staff Reporter Kevin Bowden may be contacted by email at kmbowden@ucmessenger.com. Published in The Messenger 5.24.13 | | | | |
