Unemployment rates declined across the Tri-Cities during February and hiring for construction and production workers is seeing a slight pick up in Kingsport. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported three job sectors saw slight increases in the Kingsport-Bristol MSA.

None of the job improvements were enough to dislodge the stubborn double-digit jobless rates, but unlike the state rate that is unchanged at 10.7 percent, unemployment in area cities, counties, the MSA and CSA declined.

Janice Wininger at A1 Workforce said her firm is seeing a “pick up” in the demand for construction workers for commercial projects. She added there’s “a little” more demand from local industries, but like the constructions jobs, “almost all the positions are temporary.”

According to the BLS data, the three job sectors that showed modest improvement in the Kingsport Bristol TN-VA MSA last month were:

- Mining, logging and construction.

- Financial activities.

- Professional and business services.

Some of February’s increased labor demand is seasonal and although part-time and temporary hiring traditionally signals a return to full-time hiring after an economic downturn there’s no sign that will happen anytime soon.

ETSU economist Steb Hipple said in his fourth quarter labor sector analysis that economic recovery in the Tri-Cities will “probably lag the national upturn, just as local business conditions lagged the initial part of the recession in 2008. With a springtime recovery in the national economy, the region can anticipate improving business conditions with the arrival of summer.”

But that doesn’t mean a quick turnaround on the local or national level. “The unemployment rate is still terribly high,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the “Today” show Thursday. “And it’s going to stay unacceptably high for a long period.”

Even when the national and local economies begin producing jobs it’s going to be a slow process to erase the employment sector damage done by the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Deutsche Bank economists Joe Lavorgna estimated during an MSNBC interview Thursday that it could be four to five years before the economy returns to “full employment” where anyone who wants a job can get one. Until then, what the numbers show as recovery won’t feel like it to many people. “It’s going to be a long, slow slog,” he added.

The jobs data that best reflects the regional economy – the Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol CSA – posted a February unemployment rate drop of 0.2 percent to 10.3 percent.

On the MSA lever, the Kingsport-Bristol TN-VA rate was 10.4 percent, down 0.1 percent from January.

Washington County has the lowest county jobless rate for the Tri-Cities at 9.4 percent, down 0.4 percent from January.

Hawkins County’s rate was down 0.8 percent but is still the highest in the three-county region at 11.3 percent.

Sullivan County’s rate dropped 0.2 percent to 10.2 percent.

Johnson City also saw the lowest area city unemployment rate during February – 9.1 percent, down 0.1 percent from January.

Bristol’s rate was 9.1 percent, down 0.4 percent.

Kingsport had the highest area city rate at 11.6 percent, down 0.1 percent from January.

Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February was 10.7 percent, unchanged from the January rate of 10.7 percent. The United States unemployment rate for the month of February was 9.7 percent.

State-wide Thursday’s data show the county non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for February 2010 show that the rate decreased in 78 counties, increased in 10 counties and remained the same in seven counties.

Lincoln County registered the state’s lowest county unemployment rate at 8.0 percent, down from 8.3 percent in January. Marshall County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 19.1 percent, down from 20.2 in January, followed by Henderson County at 19.0 percent, down from 19.8 percent in January.

Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 8.4 percent, down from 8.5 percent in January. Davidson County was 9.3 percent, down from 9.5 in January. Hamilton County was at 9.7 percent, down from 9.9 in January, and Shelby County was 10.8 percent, down from 11.3 in January.

The full state report is available at http://www.tennessee.gov/labor-wfd/labor_figures/february2010county.pdf .

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