The Bartlett unemployment rate went up slightly in May, but it still remains far below the Shelby County and Memphis area average. 
Information released by the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development during the last week of June showed that unemployment in Bartlett was at 7 percent for May 2013. That’s up from a revised rate of 6.5 for April and also higher than in May 2012, when the rate was at 6.1 percent.
However, the rate in Bartlett was far below the average in Shelby County, which sat at 9.7 percent for May. That number also is higher than in April or in May 2012.
Overall, unemployment in the Memphis Combined Statistical area, which includes Shelby, Fayette and Tipton counties in Tennessee and portions of Arkansas and Mississippi, was at 9.5 percent for May. That’s up 0.5 percent since April, and up 0.6 percent since the same period in 2012.
Bartlett also is below the average compared to the rest of the state and the nation, according to the report. Tennessee sits at 8.3 percent unemployment, while the U.S. figures are at 7.3 percent. In those cases compared to 2012, the state unemployment rate rose 0.4 percent while the national rate actually dropped 0.6 percent.
Statewide, Williamson County had the lowest rate at 5.7 percent, while Scott County reported the highest unemployment rate at 17 percent.
