NASHVILLE – Tennessee's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April 2009 was released last week at 9.9 percent, 0.3 percentage point higher than the revised March rate of 9.6 percent. The United States’ unemployment rate for the month of April was 8.9 percent.

 

County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for April 2009, released today, show that the rate increased in 29 counties, decreased in 59 counties and remained the same in seven counties.

 

Lincoln and Williamson County registered the state's lowest county unemployment rate at 6.3 percent. Perry County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 23.9 percent, down from 25.6 in March, followed by Scott County at 18.3 percent, down from 18.8 percent in March.

 

Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 7.4 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the March rate. Davidson County was 8.0 percent, up 0.1 from the previous month. Hamilton County was at 8.3 percent, up 0.3 percentage point from the March rate, and Shelby County was 8.9 percent, unchanged from the March rate.

Lawrence County dropped slightly from 14.8 to 14.1 Maury County went from 15.6 to 11.00 percent, Giles County down also from 15.0 to 13.8, Wayne County was down 12.8 to 11.8 and Lewis County down 16.7 to 14.8 percent.