UPPER CUMBERLAND – What goes up must come down. After unemployment rates spiked in January, the Upper Cumberland – and the rest of the state – saw a significant drop in February’s recently released jobless report.
As a whole, the UC’s rate was a full percentage point lower than the previous month. Just one county (Clay, 11.1 percent) was in double digits; five had posted rates 10.0 and above in January. Overall, Tennessee saw rates decrease in all 95 counties.
Cannon (6.0), Macon (6.0), Smith (6.2), Putnam (6.4) and Warren (6.4) all bettered or matched the state’s rate for February (6.4). Rounding out the rest of the region were White (7.0), DeKalb (7.8), Fentress (8.1), Overton (8.3), Cumberland (8.9), Jackson (9.3), Pickett (9.6) and Van Buren (9.8).
Tennessee’s preliminary, non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February was 6.4 percent, 0.7 percentage point lower than the January revised rate of 7.1 percent. The U.S. preliminary rate for February was 5.8 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the prior month.
| Counties | February | January | February 2014 |
| Cannon | 6.0 | 7.0 | 6.2 |
| Clay | 11.1 | 12.2 | 10.8 |
| Cumberland | 8.9 | 9.9 | 9.1 |
| DeKalb | 7.8 | 8.6 | 8.3 |
| Fentress | 8.1 | 9.3 | 8.8 |
| Jackson | 9.3 | 10.1 | 9.6 |
| Macon | 6.0 | 6.7 | 6.8 |
| Overton | 8.3 | 9.5 | 8.9 |
| Pickett | 9.6 | 10.8 | 10.8 |
| Putnam | 6.4 | 7.2 | 6.9 |
| Smith | 6.2 | 10.8 | 10.8 |
| Van Buren | 9.8 | 11.6 | 10.5 |
| Warren | 6.4 | 7.3 | 7.5 |
| White | 7.0 | 7.8 | 8.0 |
| UC | 7.3 | 8.3 | 8.0 |
| TN | 6.4 | 7.1 | 6.9 |
