Labor Market
Every one of Tennessee’s 95 counties posted a lower unemployment rate in September than in August, and 93 had rates below 5%, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Thursday, Oct. 22.
The county figures are not seasonally adjusted, unlike the statewide rate, so the broad monthly decline partly reflects normal seasonal patterns at the end of summer. The department compared each county with August rather than with September 2025.
The lowest rates: Nashville's suburbs and the Smokies
Eight counties tied for the state’s lowest September rate, 2.7%: Williamson, Cheatham, Sevier, Trousdale, Macon, Wilson, Rutherford and Dickson. Most of that group sits in the Nashville region, including the suburban counties of Williamson, Rutherford and Wilson. Sevier County, home to the tourism economy around Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, was the exception.
Bledsoe and Sumner counties rounded out the 10 lowest rates, each at 2.8%.
The highest rates
Only two counties had unemployment rates of 5% or more. Perry County had the highest rate in the state at 5.1%, down four-tenths of a percentage point from August. Hancock County was next at 5.0%, down half a point.
Meigs and Hardeman counties followed at 4.6%, then Lauderdale and Greene at 4.5%. Shelby County, which includes Memphis and is the state’s most populous county, was at 4.4%, tied with Lake and Pickett counties. Decatur County was at 4.3%.
The spread between the lowest and highest counties, 2.4 percentage points, shows that even in a month when every county improved, job seekers in a number of rural counties and in the Memphis area faced noticeably weaker conditions than those in the Nashville suburbs.
How it fits with the statewide rate
The county release follows the department’s Thursday, Oct. 15, report that Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.4% in September, unchanged for a third straight month and down one-tenth of a point from a year earlier. The department said 3.4% matched the lowest level of the year and compared it with a U.S. rate of 4.2%.
That statewide release also reported that Tennessee employers added 28,400 nonfarm jobs over the year, led by leisure and hospitality, followed by health care and social assistance and state government. Over the month, nonfarm employment rose by 2,500 jobs, with the largest increases in leisure and hospitality; professional, scientific and technical services; and government.
The county declines do not by themselves show that statewide unemployment fell in September; on a seasonally adjusted basis it was flat. Instead, the county data show where the state’s low overall rate is concentrated and where joblessness remains higher.
Caveats and what's next
County rates are estimates built from smaller samples and modeling, are not seasonally adjusted, and are subject to revision. The release does not list rates for every county or give year-over-year county comparisons; the department’s full county estimates are published separately.
The department said it will release statewide unemployment data for October on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 1:30 p.m. Central time. It also pointed job seekers to the state’s American Job Centers, which offer free help with resumes, interview skills and computer access.
Sources
- Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, “Unemployment Rates Fall in All 95 Tennessee Counties,” October 22, 2026. https://www.tn.gov/workforce/general-resources/news/2026/10/22/unemployment-rates-fall-in-all-95-tennessee-counties.html
- Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, “Tennessee Unemployment Rate Holds Steady for Third Month,” October 15, 2026. https://www.tn.gov/workforce/general-resources/news/2026/10/15/tennessee-unemployment-rate-holds-steady-for-third-month.html
Featured photo: The intersection of Fourth Avenue and Main Street in Franklin, Tennessee, the seat of Williamson County, photographed Jan. 16, 2010. Representative image. Photo: Ichabod, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Cropped from the original.
