Displaying items by tag: Tennessee
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Commissioner of Labor & Workforce Development Karla Davis announced today Tennessee’s unemployment rate for April fell to 7.8 percent, down from the March revised rate of 7.9 percent. The national unemployment rate for April 2012 was 8.1 percent, 0.1 percentage point lower than the March rate.
“While Tennessee’s unemployment rate has declined for nine consecutive months, April’s decrease is mostly attributable to a shrinking labor force,” said Commissioner Davis. “This is similar to the monthly change that occurred on the national level.”
Economic Summary:
· The unemployment rate has declined for nine consecutive months.
· Tennessee’s April unemployment rate is the lowest since November 2008.
· The number of unemployed persons is the lowest since November 2008.
· The number of unemployed persons has declined for 16 consecutive months.
· The labor force has declined for four consecutive months.
Seasonally Adjusted Nonfarm Employment – Business Survey
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(Numbers in thousands) April 2011 Revised Preliminary Change from Change from
Mar. 2012 April 2012 April 2011 to Mar. 2012 to
April 2012 April 2012
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Total Nonfarm 2,652.5 2,694.1 2,695.8 43.3 1.7
Mining/logging/construction 108.2 115.1 113.9 5.7 -1.2
Manufacturing 303.6 310.2 312.0 8.4 1.8
Trade/transportation/utilities 561.7 557.3 558.9 -2.8 1.6
Information 44.3 44.2 44.1 -0.2 -0.1
Financial activities 135.1 135.5 135.2 0.1 -0.3
Professional/business services 320.5 329.4 327.6 7.1 -1.8
Education/health services 379.8 388.9 389.3 9.5 0.4
Leisure/hospitality 265.7 270.3 271.8 6.1 1.5
Other services 101.7 101.9 101.8 0.1
Government 431.9 441.3 441.2 9.3 -0.1
Tennessee’s annual Arbor Day, always the first Friday in March, will be celebrated on March 2, with ceremonies commemorating the day set for Centennial Park in Nashville at 11 a.m.
National Arbor Day, founded in 1872, is celebrated each year on the last Friday in April, but a number of states mark the day at the times of the year best suited for planting in their climate zones.
Kyle Holmberg, horticulture marketing specialist at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, says there’s more than just the time of year to consider, however, when adding trees to a landscape.
Most people understand that adding trees to a landscape adds ‘curb appeal’ and is a smart investment in the property,” says Holmberg. “Just as you carefully invest your money wisely, or keep up your home so it retains or increases its value, be careful choosing the right trees. Then, help them retain or increase their value.”
“Consider the available spaces you have with the eventual sizes of the trees you think you want to plant,” says the specialist. “Are there places where you need fast growing trees to create privacy or block noise and wind? Are there areas of your lawn that are always in shade?”
Holmberg recommends doing a quick overview of your property conditions, then spending some time on the Internet researching varieties which are both appealing and suited to your purposes.
“Then it’s time to visit local retail nurseries and garden centers,” says Holmberg, “not just to buy the trees, but to get the recommendations of the growers and landscapers who are experts about what grows best in the area. Don’t forget to bring some photos of the areas in your landscape you’d like to improve.”
“Success with transplants is linked to two things: knowing what is most likely to do well in Tennessee’s climate, and buying from a reputable plant grower,” says Holmberg. “When you buy a locally grown tree, you know it already has been thriving out in the field of a Tennessee nursery and is clearly accustomed to Tennessee’s seasonal variations.
“That tree has not suffered stress from traveling long distances, either.”
“When you purchase directly from the grower, you can also get solid information about where in a landscape that plant belongs, with how much sun, and other important information.”
“Choosing locally grown trees is the best way to ensure that what you plant on Arbor Day will be a source of pride, pleasure and value for many years to come.”
A list of nurseries and garden centers with locally grown trees is available at www.picktnproducts.org.
Tennessee’s burgeoning apple crop is expected to weigh in at about 8.5 million pounds, up a million pounds from last year. So how many bushels do you want?
KNOXVILLE—Tennessee has now made its first contribution to a national electronic database of historical newspapers, thanks to a federal grant.
The Tennessee Digital Newspaper Project (TDNP) is a joint effort between the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA), funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), to digitize more than 100,000 pages of Tennessee’s microfilmed newspapers dating from 1836 to 1922. The NEH has funded similar projects in other states as it builds the national database.
A panel of historians, scholars, librarians, and genealogists has selected a range of newspaper titles from across Tennessee for inclusion in the project. The initial phase of the project focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.
Issues of the Memphis Daily Appeal from 1857 to 1872 were scanned and added to the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website. To view the paper, visit http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Access is free to the public.
Pages from the newspaper include:
Frontline dispatches from Civil War correspondents such as “SHADOW” and “DIXIE;” News reports from the cotton industry, railroads, and riverboats; and Advertisements for farm equipment, clothing, guns, real estate, or cure-all medicines such as “Braggs Arctic Liniment” and “Dr. Mott’s Chalybeate Pills.”Additional historical Tennessee newspapers scheduled to be digitized include Brownlow’s Knoxville Whig, the Nashville Union and American, the Chattanooga Daily Rebel, the Athens Post, and the Clarksville Weekly Chronicle.
TSLA collects and preserves books and records of historical, documentary, and reference value and promotes library and archival development throughout the state. The NEH is an independent federal agency which supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities.
Tennessee Commissioner of Labor & Workforce Development Karla Davis announced today that for the second month in a row, Tennessee experienced substantial employment growth.
“Tennessee had 17,400 more people employed in March than in February,” said Commissioner Karla Davis. “The state also saw healthy growth in the number of people joining in the job search. Tennessee’s civilian labor force grew 0.5 percent from February to March as 16,300 more people looked for jobs.”
February 2011 to March 2011
Month-to-month increases occurred in leisure and hospitality, up 7,200 jobs, and trade, transportation, and utilities, up 3,100. Health care/social assistance and durable goods manufacturing both increased by 2,300. Declines took place in private educational services, down 600 jobs, and finance and insurance, down 400. Information, non-store retailers, and health/personal care stores all lost 200.
March 2010 to March 2011
Year-over-year increases took place in educational and health services, up 11,400 jobs; professional and business services, up 6,400; and mining and construction, up 6,000. Transportation and warehousing increased by 4,700, a signal of economic improvement. Durable goods manufacturing was up 3,300 over the year. Employment decreases were in nondurable goods manufacturing, down 2,700 jobs, and retail trade, down 1,700.
