UC sees year-to-year improvements in unemployment

Two counties better national marks

UPPER CUMBERLAND – The first unemployment numbers of 2014 have been released, and several Upper Cumberland counties show marked improvements year-to-year, represented by rate decreases of more than 2 percent in almost every community.

January’s figures, preliminary numbers published by the state on Thursday, represent a significant drop compared to January 2013 in all 14 counties, 13 of which that had drops of 2 percentage points or more, including White with a 3.4 percentage point decline. Others seeing similarly noticeable drops were Cannon (5.1 percent; a 2.5 percentage point drop), Fentress (8.0 percent; a 2.5 percentage point drop), DeKalb (6.9 percent; a 2.2 percentage point drop) and Putnam (6.4 percent; a 2.0 percentage point drop). Six other counties also saw such decreases, although their month-to-month rates showed gains, including Cumberland (9.2 percent; a 2.4 percentage point drop), Jackson (9.3 percent; a 2.4 percentage point drop), Macon (6.6 percent; a 2.2 percentage point drop), Overton (9.3 percent; a 2.2 percentage point drop), Smith (7.5 percent; a 2.2 percentage point drop) and Warren (7.9 percent; a 2.5 percentage point drop). While both Clay (10.5 percent) and Van Buren (11.5 percent) were in the double digits, rates in those counties also were down 2.2 and 2.1 percentage points, respectively.

Pickett County, while still posting the highest unemployment in the Upper Cumberland, saw an improvement of 1.8 percentage points from January 2013. Its rate was 13.2 percent, a slight increase of 0.6 percentage points from December 2013.

  The state unemployment rate for January was 7.2 percent, 0.5 percentage points better than the revised December number of 7.7. Four UC counties bettered that rate (Cannon, DeKalb, Macon and Putnam). The national unemployment rate, meanwhile, was 6.6 percent, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Two counties, Cannon (5.1) and Putnam (6.4), were below that figure.