MONEY

Tennessee's economy shows gains

Jamie McGee
USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

Tennessee business filings increased during the third quarter, indicating gains in employment and tax revenue, according to the state’s quarterly economic report.

Tennessee business filings increased during the third quarter.

The state recorded 8,289 new business filings in the third quarter, up 5.3 percent from the same period last year. Annual filings also increased.

The October unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, from 5.7 percent in September, the lowest rate since February 2008. The national rate is 5 percent.

Davidson County booked the largest numbers of new businesses, with 1,493 filings in the three-month period. That’s a 10 percent increase compared to the same quarter in 2014. Shelby County recorded 1,071.

The Tennessee Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report is based on data from the Division of Business Services and is published by the office of Secretary of State Tre Hargett and the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Center for Business and Economic Research.

“Tennessee's economy continues to grow," Hargett said, pointing to potential impact on employment, personal income and tax revenue during a conference call. "These things bode well for the state of Tennessee and bode well in comparison to many other states nationally."

The data demonstrates how strong Tennessee’s economy is now, and how strong it could be moving forward,” Hargett said in a prepared statement. “We are in a position that would make just about any other state envious.”

The state’s filings and employment numbers have been on an upward annual trajectory since 2010, but the state forecasts that employment levels will drop in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year and to the third quarter of 2015.

Tax revenues in the second quarter increased year-over-year, driven by an increase in sales tax revenue and in franchise and excise tax returns.

The number of business dissolutions in the third quarter climbed by 5.6 percent to 22,855. Many businesses are dissolved in August after failing to file an annual report, so an uptick in closures is common during that time of year, according to the report.

"To get a lot of successes, you have to have a lot of tries," said William Fox, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research. "Some of which work, some of which don’t. Having a lot of entrepreneurship going on in your economy is really good news in terms of the long-term future of the economy."

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.