Volunteer State News

Tennessee's unemployment rate hit 5.3% among residents aged 16 and 65 years old in 2021. That's 179,568 people out of the 6,859,497 living in Tennessee at the time, according to data U.S. Census Bureau data obtained on Oct. 26, 2023.

The unemployment rate in Tennessee has remained fairly stable compared to the 5.3% registered in 2020.

The percentage of people unemployed in Tennessee was nearly equal to the national unemployment rate of 5.5%.

Of the 3,219,713 people who had a job during that time, 18,573 were employed in the Armed Forces and 3,201,140 belonged to the civilian labor force.

Employment status	Number of people	Percentage of population
Unemployed	179,568	5.3%
Employed	3,219,713	94.7%
Employed in civilian labor force	3,201,140	94.2%
Employed in armed forces	18,573	0.5%