Gov. Bill Haslam Questions State’s Unemployment Rate

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam is questioning why Tennessee’s unemployment rate remains well above the national level.
The most recent national unemployment rate released Friday was 5.9 percent – the lowest level since July 2008, in the middle of the Great Recession. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s jobless rate was 7.4 percent in August.
Haslam says Tennessee is among the top states adding new jobs and that the state is not adding a large number of new claims for unemployment benefits. That’s why the governor says “it’s a little hard to understand” why Tennessee has been unable to whittle away at the unemployment rate.
Haslam says he has asked some economists to look into the statistics to see if they can find an explanation for Tennessee’s high unemployment rate.