BRISTOL, Va. – Economic analysts in Tennessee and Virginia suggest the labor environment in both states is showing slight improvement in some ways, but plenty of ups and downs are ahead to make Labor Day 2011 better than this year’s version.
“Things in Tennessee may be improving a little, and the worst may well be over,” said Matthew Murray, a University of Tennessee economics professor and associate director of its Center for Business and Economic Research.
“But we’ve built ourselves one big hole over the past few years. And we’ve still got a lot of work ahead to get ourselves out of it.”
Terry Rephann, regional economist for the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, offered a similar view in discussing Virginia’s labor environment.
“Overall, there aren’t many states with unemployment rates as low as 7 percent or below, and Virginia’s is at 7 percent,” Rephann said. “But a lot of that is because Northern Virginia is doing phenomenally well. Take out Northern Virginia and suddenly our state looks more like the rest of the nation – particularly Southwest Virginia. So we still have a long slog ahead.”
According to just-released U.S. Department of Labor statistics, the national unemployment rate is 9.6 percent, with 14.9 million people looking for work.
In Tennessee, the unemployment rate has been slowly dropping over the past year: the latest number put it at 9.8 percent – a marked improvement from 10.9 percent during summer 2009.
But, according to the latest statistics from Tennessee’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development, 4.4 percent of all workers in the state are working more than one job. And only 66.1 percent of full-time workers in Tennessee (ages 18 to 64) were covered by health insurance – compared to 83 percent nationwide.
That mix of improving-but-still-stark numbers, Murray suggested, is one reason Tennessee still faces major obstacles in getting its labor force back to a consistently high level.
“Right now, the labor situation seems to have stabilized,” Murray said, pointing to encouraging growth in metro areas such as Chattanooga and Knoxville. “But in areas where manufacturing has been a big factor, like East Tennessee, the state of the economy is still tough. And the same is true for rural areas, too.”
According to the most recent figures, Sullivan County’s unemployment rate is 8.3 percent.
Rephann said Northern Virginia’s economic boom, which he linked to the steady amount of high-tech and government positions, stands in stark contrast to southern Virginia, where some areas, such as Danville, are suffering double-digit unemployment rates and others, such as Washington County and the Tri-Cities, hover in the 8.6 to 8.9 range.
“The southside and southwest parts of Virginia make up a region that’s still facing challenges,” Rephann said. “And that has to be addressed before we can really say Virginia’s labor market is up and roaring again.”
rbrown@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2512
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