Nearly every Tennessee county has an unemployment rate under 5 percent.
Ninety-one counties in Tennessee had a jobless rate under 5 percent in December 2025.
Four other counties had an unemployment rate above 5 percent: Maury, Lewis, Perry, and Meigs.
The counties with the lowest unemployment rates are Williamson and Cheatham, at 2.6 percent.
Eight counties, Sevier, Wilson, Rutherford, Dickson, Macon, Sumner, Knox, and Haywood, all had a jobless rate of 2.7 percent.
The county with the largest decrease in the jobless rate from November 2025 to December 2025 was Grundy County, which fell from 5.3 percent to 4.0 percent.
The county with the largest increase in unemployment rate during the same period was Maury County, which rose from 3.3 percent to 5.7 percent.
From December 2024 to December 2025, the county with the largest decrease in unemployment was Unicoi County, falling from 5.5 percent to 3.9 percent.
During the same period, Maury County experienced the largest increase in the unemployment rate, rising by 2.6 percent.
In Nashville, Tennessee’s largest city by population, the unemployment rate in December 2025 was 2.8 percent.
Memphis, the state’s second-largest city by population, had an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent.
As a state, Tennessee’s unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in December 2025, the same level it has been since July. This percentage ranks 14th nationally, with South Dakota at the lowest at 2.2 percent and Washington, D.C., at the highest with 6.7 percent.
From December 2024 to December 2025, Tennessee added 23,000 nonfarm jobs, with the biggest increase coming in the professional and business services sector.
In recent months, the Volunteer State has attracted substantial investments, particularly in the nuclear industry.
Centrus, a nuclear energy company, announced it would invest $560 million in its Oak Ridge facility and create nearly 430 jobs. In addition, LIS Technologies announced plans to invest $1.4 billion in the state and create 203 new jobs.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
