After falling for eight consecutive months, unemployment in Tennessee has steadily rose since April, climbing to 7.4 percent in August.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said today that the jobless rate in the Volunteer state rose three-tenths of a percent in August and was 1.3 percentage points above the U.S. average last month.
The number of working Tennesseans rose last month by 6,700, primarily because of increases in manufacturing, administrative and food service employment.
But the size of the workforce grew even more, boosting Tennessee's jobless rate to the highest monthly level since last December.