Unemployment increased from November to December in all 95 counties in Tennessee. While no county here staved off rising joblessness, Warren County fared the worst.
Last week the state’s overall rate posted at just under eight percent, up from an even seven, and today’s figures show no county in the state was safe from job cuts during the holidays.
Warren County saw the sharpest increase in unemployment in December, jumping 3.2 percent, putting the area surrounding McMinnville at 12.3, or nearly double its unemployment rate from a year ago.
McMinnville Mayor Norman Rone says the town has seen several retailers close, along with layoffs at a number of lumber mills.
“But what hurts us the most I think is our nursery industry – We’re in the midst of the drought area that hit Tennessee so badly the past couple of years. And they’ve struggled really, and there are over 200 of them here in the county. It’s our major industry.”
Rone says the nursery business there never bounced back from an out-of-season freeze that hit along with the drought in 2007.
For a link to the county-by-county breakdown of unemployment rates across the state, click (PDF).
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM