December Unemployment

Despite increasing, Williamson County was reported as having the single-lowest unemployment rate in the state in December.

 Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce

According to new data released last week from the Tennessee Department of Labor, the unemployment rate for Williamson County in December jumped from 3.3% in November to 4.2% in December. In December of 2019, the county's unemployment rate was 2.1%.

Save for October, the county's unemployment rate has steadily decreased month over month since reaching its height in April. In December 2020, however, Williamson County once again saw a spike in unemployment when compared to the previous month by nearly a whole percentage point.

Of the three major cities in the county - Franklin, Spring Hill and Brentwood - Spring Hill was recorded as having the single highest unemployment rate in the county at 4.5%, up from November's rate of 3.5. Brentwood was next at 4.3%, up from 3.3% in November, and Franklin recorded a 4.1% unemployment rate, up from November's rate of 3.2%.

With a combined labor force of 95,287, the county's three major cities were reported as having 4,042 unemployed. Click here to view a complete analysis of December's county unemployment data.

Despite the increase, Williamson County was still recorded as having the single-lowest unemployment rate in December, with Moore and Smith counties coming in second and third with rates of 4.6% and 4.8%, respectively.

Lake County experienced the highest rate of unemployment in December at 10.6%. on six counties in the state saw a rate of under 5% in December.

Tennessee as a whole experienced an increased unemployment rate in December as well, jumping from 5.2% in November to 6.4% in December.

Unemployed Tennesseans can find free job search assistance and career development opportunities at any of the more than 80 American Job Centers across the state. Tennesseans can find the center nearest to them through this interactive map. Online, more than 240,000 active job listings are currently available on the state’s workforce development website.

The state also launched the Tennessee Virtual American Job Center (VAJC). The new website is located at www.TNVirtualAJC.com. It allows Tennesseans to research different programs, from different state agencies, that can help them remove barriers to employment, so they can more easily reenter Tennessee’s workforce. The VAJC allows job seekers to do this on their schedule, anytime, anywhere.