Story Published:
Aug 7, 2011 at 8:16 AM CDT
Story Updated:
Aug 7, 2011 at 8:16 AM CDT
You might not think that Smith County, a mostly rural area nestled in the Upper Cumberland, would feel a major impact from world events.
You would be wrong.
The numbers speak loudly when it comes to Smith County, particularly the unemployment rate. The June numbers released late last week reveal that Smith County, where Carthage is the county seat, had the largest percentage drop in unemployment from the previous month in the entire state.
Unemployment fell 2.6 percentage points in Smith County, only one of four in Tennessee where the rate actually dropped. Interestingly, one of those four is DeKalb County, also in the Upper Cumberland, where the rate fell slightly. For 91 other counties in Tennessee, the rate rose.
The overall state rate rose as well, to 9.8 percent, up from 9.7 percent in May. The national rate was 9.2 percent, up from 9.1 percent the previous month.
Smith County Mayor Michael Nesbitt said he thinks the impacts from this year’s tsunami in Japan were the major factor — and it has cut both ways.
As Nesbitt points out, the rate from April to May in Smith County rose an identical 2.6 percentage points. He said production at automotive facilities in Japan fell during that period, thus forcing Smith County companies to lay off workers at facilities in the county.
“I feel that this decrease is due to some of those people going back to work,” said Nesbitt.
He said it is likely that workers employed at Bonnell, Nyrstar and ETI were called back and there may have been additional people hired to meet the increasing demand as Japan attempts to rebound from its huge natural disaster.
In June, the latest numbers available from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the unemployment rate in Smith County was 9.6 percent, compared to 12.2 percent in the previous month. There were 910 people listed as unemployed out of a total workforce of 9,470 in the county. In June 2010, the unemployment rate in Smith County was 10 percent.
The current rate of 9.6 percent is the lowest percentage in the Upper Cumberland.
“Smith County is very fortunate and still working to increase local jobs,” said Nesbitt. “That is what we do.”
Click on http://ucbjournal.com/news.php?id=397 to find our analysis of unemployment trends in the Upper Cumberland region.
For more on this story, click here.
