December payrolls rise to keep jobless rates low in Tennessee and Georgia
The job market in Tennessee and Georgia stayed strong at the end of 2022 with employers adding more workers to payrolls and unemployment staying at or below the national average in both states.
Despite growing concerns about an economic slowdown and recent layoffs in the tech industry, Tennessee employers this past year added 104,800 more jobs, according to the state Department of Labor and Workfore Development, while employers in Georgia boosted payrolls by 157,000 jobs compared with a year ago, according to the state Department of Labor.
Tennessee ended 2022 with the jobless rate in December unchanged at 3.5%, matching the 53-year low for the nation as a whole. Georgia’s jobless rate this past month stayed even lower at 3%.
Tennessee employers sustained job growth in December, adding 1,500 nonfarm positions statewide. The largest increase came in the trade, transportation and utilities sector. The government sector added the second-largest number of jobs, followed by the mining, logging and construction sector.
But other numbers continue to show a shrinking labor force, and rapid job growth seen in early 2022 has ebbed, showing an economy that has plateaued.
In Georgia, the labor force fell for the sixth month in a row, while the number of people reporting they had a job fell for the fifth month. Payrolls are measured by a survey of employers, separate from the survey of individuals.
In Tennessee, the labor force participation rate, which measures the share of adults of working age who are either working or looking for a job, fell to 59.2%, down from 60.3% a year ago. Tennessee’s labor force participation rate is also below the U.S. rate of 6.2%.