Obion County posted Tennessee's second highest May unemployment rate at 14.2 percent. Unemployment in Weakley County was also among the state’s highest, at 11.4 percent.
Labor and Workforce Development spokesman Jeff Hentschel said high rates in Obion County were due to last year’s Goodyear plant closure. Hentschel attributes Weakley County’s rates to temp job layoffs. The state jobless rate also increased, for the first time in two years, to 7.9 percent. State officials say the increase was due to people who had stopped looking for work re-entering the workforce to look for jobs. A job fair held last week in Fulton County drew more than 200 Kentucky and Tennessee people looking for work.
