Roane jobless rate at 7.8 percent

Roane County’s unemployment rate took a big drop in March to 7.8 percent, according to statistics released late last month from the
Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
The state’s numbers show  that Roane County’s rate is down by 0.6 percent over the February rate — and 0.9 percent lower than in March 2010.
That means 26,060 workers in the county’s 28,250 labor force were employed in March.
Roane County consistently has one of Tennessee’s lowest unemployment rates, and that was no different in March.
The county claimed the fourth-lowest rate, just above neighboring Knox County at 7 percent. Lincoln and Williamson counties held on to the top two spots at 6.1 and 6.4 percent, respective-
ly.
Overall, Tennessee also experienced a 0.6 percent jobless rate decrease to 9.5 percent. The U.S. rate, at 9.2 percent, dropped by 0.3 percent.
Statewide, 93 counties saw jobless rate decreases, and the rate rose in two counties.
Nearby Scott County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 21.9 percent. Pickett County, which lies on the Kentucky border on the Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee, had the state’s second-highest rate at 16.4 percent.
Marshall County in Middle Tennessee reflected the third-highest rate at 15 percent.
Unemployment rates for surrounding counties in March were Anderson, 8.6, down 0.6 percent; Cumberland, 11.5, down 1.2 percent; Loudon, 8.1, down 0.6 percent; McMinn, 11.5, down 0.8 percent; Meigs, 12, down 0.8 percent; Monroe, 12.9, down 0.9 percent; Morgan, 10.3, down 0.5 percent; and Rhea, 12.1, down 0.3 percent.