Business

The unemployment rate in the Memphis MSA settled to 9.2 percent in February — 0.2 percentage points lower than January and a 1.1 percentage point decrease from February 2011. Shelby County’s rate mirrored the MSA’s at 9.2 percent last month.

Data from the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development shows 75 counties saw decreases in unemployment from January to February while 10 remained at January levels. While only 10 counties saw an increase in unemployment, 48 of Tennessee’s 95 counties reported rates of 10 percent or higher.

The U.S. Department of Labor and FedEx Corp.’s $3 million settlement regarding alleged hiring discrimination by FedEx subsidiaries may seem like a drop in the bucket at first glance, (see FedEx profit more than doubles in third quarter) but try telling that to the more than 21,000 applicants who will receive back wages plus interest out of the settlement.

The scope of the settlement reflects one of the largest classes of affected workers in the history of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

Now that the federal government and states have hammered out a historic settlement with mortgage servicers, the bigger question will be the exact impact at the local level in cities hardest hit, like Memphis.

In the immediate, the general consensus is that even the largest federal-state settlement in history of $26 billion — with an expected $146 million coming to Tennessee — isn’t enough to stem the tide of massive foreclosures.

Unemployment in the eight-county Memphis metropolitan area fell to 9.2 percent in November. That represents a drop of eight-tenths of a percentage point from October’s revised rate of 10.0 percent, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said today. More >