Tri-Cities employers added 1,900 jobs in June, but only if you look at the adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report. The unadjusted numbers show the labor market was a push. New jobs equaled the number of lost jobs.

That’s not unusual this time of the year. The spike in lost jobs comes at the end of the school year in the Government and Education and Health service sectors. At the same time, there were 500 new jobs in Leisure and Hospitality, 400 in Manufacturing and 100 in health part of the Education and Health Services sector.

If you use the seasonal adjusted number, the labor market’s seasonal peaks and valleys fade into the background. It shows a smoother trend. The seasonally adjusted jobs growth rate is 467 a month so far this year. That means the region will be back to pre-pandemic levels in about nine months at that rate.

June’s unadjusted unemployment rate increased to 5.4%.

The employment trend was up for the second straight month while the number of people with jobs declined 1,313 from May. That’s also due to seasonal conditions.

It’s too early to tell if dropping extended unemployment benefits is having the full intended effect of pushing more workers back into the labor market. The July report – the local version will be available late next month – will be the first good measure. So far, the total number of people receiving benefits is slightly down from the cutoff date. New claims increased during the second week of July.

While the worker demand for the East Tennessee Labor Market is ranked “high” by the state’s Jobs4TN website, it was graded to “medium” for the two Tri-Cities metro areas.

The late July update for the site says 2,693 jobs are being advertised in the three-county Johnson City metro area that includes Carter, Washington, and Unicoi counties.

The top 5 employers, ranked by open jobs, are:

Ballad Health – 338

Sodexo, Inc. – 104

Food City – 96

ETSU – 94

BWX Technologies – 50

A total of 4,660 jobs are being advertised in the two Tenn. counties of the Kingsport-Bristol metro area. The metro area includes Hawkins and Sullivan counties in NE Tenn. and Scott and Washington counties in SW Va.

Top employers advertising jobs are:

Ballad Health – 508

Food City – 203

McDonald’s Corp. – 194

General Dynamics – 168

Eastman Chemical – 136

The average private-sector weekly salary for the Johnson City metro area was $613.12 last month, down from $628.78 in May and $640.86 June last year. The average workweek was 31.9 hours, down from 32.8 in May and 33.5 in June last year.

Kingsport-Bristol private-sector workers averaged $703.80 a week last month, down from $728.70 in May and up from $670.06 June last year. The average workweek was 34.5 hours, down from 35 in May and 34.7 June last year.

The weekly wages do not include overtime or bonuses.

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Categories: LABOR MARKET