By DON FENLEY

TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – The local job creation machine may have run out of gas during the last quarter, but last year was the region’s best non-farm job performance in 28 years. Employers added a little over 5,200 jobs during the year. It was the best annual new jobs count since 1995.

The total labor market picture would have been better if the local labor force participation rates were not so low. They range from 56% to just under 50% on a county level. The national rate is 61.9%. The state rate is 58.8%.

The second part of the December employment report shows the seven-county region’s employment rate dropped to 3.1%. There were 277 fewer people in the labor force, and there were 6,001 fewer people employed than the previous year. The number of people counted as employed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Household Report has dropped to an annual average of 219,473 from a peak of 233,808 in 2008. The region’s best year for the labor force was 1999, with 228,153. Last year it dropped to 227,057.

Here are the job sectors that added jobs last year compared to the 2021 annual average.

• Leisure and Hospitality, up 1,575
• Retail Trade, up 1,033
• Manufacturing, up 983
• Government, up 483
• Education and Health Services, up 467
• Professional and Business Services, 383
• Other Services, up 217
• Wholesale Trade, up 175
• Mining, Logging, and Construction, up 167
• Transportation and Utilities up 67
• Financial Activities up 67
• Information, no change

Despite the strong job creation, the region continues to struggle with a labor shortage.

The current job list at the Jobs4TN website lists 7,740 open jobs in the NE, Tenn. area.

The top four firms advertising for workers and the number of open jobs are:

• Ballad Health, 911
• Ingles Markets, 249
• Food City, 162
• East Tennessee State University, 141
• Tacala, LLC, 75

The website lists the average regional weekly wage as $974.

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Categories: LABOR MARKET