9/13/22 Nashville Mastermind Group Meeting

Key Take Aways from Nashville September Meeting!

Jay Patel, Economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics provided an over of the current Labor Market Conditions.

• As a result of the pandemic, 34.5 percent of establishments increased telework for some or all of their employees.
• Among U.S. business establishments that increased telework during the pandemic, 60.2 percent expect the increases to be permanent. The D.C. area had the highest rate at 76.7 percent, followed by Illinois at 69.3 percent. TN was below the U.S. average at 56.7 percent.
• The unemployment rate in July for TN was at 3.3 percent, compared to 3.5 percent nationwide in June.
• In June, the rate of job openings in TN was 6.6%, compared to 6.6% nationwide. There were 229,000 job openings in TN in June.
• In June, TN had one of the highest quit rates in the nation, at 3.5 percent, with 113,000 quits.
• The number of unemployed persons per job opening in Tennessee in August was 0.5, which equates to 2.0 job openings for every unemployed person.
• Nashville, total nonfarm employment stood at 1,116,800 in July 2022 (numbers as of Friday), with an increase of close to 54,000 jobs over the year.
• In February 2020, employment stood at 1.058M in Nashville, TN. The Professional and Business services sector accounted for 17% all employment, followed by the education and health services with 15%, and government with 12%.
• Several sectors have recovered jobs lost during the pandemic, most notable, the production and business services and the leisure and hospitality sectors, each with a gain of over  10,000+ jobs.
• In contrast, the public sector has yet to recover jobs lost in March and April of 2020, down 15,000 jobs overall.
• Food prices overall were up 11.4% over the year, as food at home prices were up 13.5 percent. Food away from prices (think restaurants and such) were up 8.0 percent over the past 12 months.
• Energy prices (which can be broken down to services—electricity and natural gas; and commodities—gasoline) were up 23.8 percent overall. The increase in the energy index was largely due to a 25.6 percent increases in the gasoline index.