WASHINGTON: When classroom doors closed for the summer in May, they slammed shut on a one-year string of unemployment drops in Bradley County. Citing seasonal trends, labor market analysts warned it might happen. They were right. At 4.9 percent, the local jobless mark in June ended an uplifting series of 12 consecutive state reports that showed Bradley County’s unemployment to be dropping; or, at the very least, to be unchanged from the previous month.
The May figure had been 3.6, but when schools closed — meaning that nonteaching, and non-salaried, personnel were on their own for the summer, it sent jobless numbers rising. But in perspective, the Bradley County figures are still better than last year, according to an unemployment watchdog. Larry Green, labor market analyst for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development who monitors Bradley County’s employment picture, said Thursday the June 2015 jobless count was 6.2 percent, up from 5.4 the month before.
“It’s still very low compared to last year’s figures for Bradley County,” Green told the Cleveland Daily Banner. “But it’s important to understand this is seasonal. The primary reason [for the unemployment increase] was the temporary layoff of nonteaching personnel and those who are not under a 12-month contract in the local school systems.” Although education, recognized as “Local Government” among state employment categories, saw the largest decline in employment, it didn’t mean other areas failed to show improvement.
In Bradley County, slight hiring increases were recorded in construction, manufacturing and tourism (“Leisure and Hospitality”), Green said. Alongside education, slight drops in employment were also recorded in private education and health services, as well as temporary services. “Local government (education) was the main industry that declined [statewide],” he pointed out. “It was a primary factor in practically every county throughout the state.”
Green said — also as expected — that Bradley County’s largest hiring gain came in tourism thanks to increased travel and the massive number of outdoor recreationists who enjoy Polk County amenities like the Ocoee and Hiwassee rivers, as well as the Smoky Mountains, but who reserve their lodging in Cleveland. Hotels, motels and restaurants make up the bulk of tourism-related hiring.
“Overall, the numbers were pretty much in line with our typical seasonal fluctuations that we get this same time every year,” Green explained. Based on seasonal trends, the July rates should stabilize, or maybe even go up a little more, and then begin to drop in August as schools reopen and nonteaching personnel return to school system payrolls, he said. Bradley County wasn’t alone in its temporary loss of jobs. It happened in all 95 of Tennessee’s counties. The local rate notched Bradley in a six-way tie for the 15th lowest mark in the state. Others with 4.9 marks were Coffee, Hamilton, Loudon, Marshall and Smith counties.
