NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's unemployment rate for April was 6.3 percent, the state's lowest rate in six years.
According to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the state's unemployment rate has decreased a full two percentage points in the last 12 months.
Department spokesman Jeff Hentschel says there's good reason for cautious optimism.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen good news and I’m always cautious to say that there’s a trend, but here we are at the eighth month where we’ve seen a decrease in unemployment. We saw some nice increases in areas like construction, 2,500 jobs, durable goods manufacturing, and leisure and hospitality.”
The current number of unemployed Tennesseans stands at 192,000. That's nearly 12,000 lower than last month and the lowest since May 2008.
The national unemployment rate for April was also 6.3 percent.