Chattanooga holds steady as manufacturing drags, services carry growth.
3.8%
Hamilton County unemployment
June 2026, vs 4.1% national rate
4.4%
Tennessee weekly wage growth
YoY through Q1 2026, state ranked 12th nationally
3,466 workers
Manufacturing WARN exposure
Leading sector in TN's 24-month WARN total
28,000+
Nashville vs. Chattanooga job adds
Nashville 12-mo gain vs. Chattanooga's slower pace
This Month's Takeaways
01
Manufacturing softness is the metro's clearest drag on momentum.
Statewide manufacturing contracted slightly while Tennessee WARN filings show manufacturing as the leading cause of layoff notices over the past 24 months (22 filings, 3,466 workers). Chattanooga's long-standing manufacturing base makes this a structural watch point, not a one-month blip.
02
Chattanooga wage gains diverge sharply by occupation type.
Financial analyst and accountant pay rose significantly locally even as software engineer pay fell significantly — a pattern distinct from the national trend of flat tech pay. This suggests Chattanooga's growth is concentrated in traditional professional services rather than tech-sector expansion, relevant for economic development messaging.
03
Local wage-vs-inflation picture looks more favorable than the nation's.
National average hourly earnings growth has slowed to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation, eroding real purchasing power broadly. Tennessee's weekly wages rose a stronger 4.4% year-over-year through Q1 2026, suggesting the state — and likely Chattanooga — may be better insulated from the national real-wage squeeze, though local wage data lags and warrants caution.
04
Nashville's pull is reshaping the state's growth map.
Nashville added over 28,000 jobs in twelve months on the back of Oracle's $1.2 billion investment, while smaller metros including Chattanooga lagged. Commerce leaders should treat statewide headline growth figures skeptically when assessing Chattanooga-specific conditions.
Local Economic Conditions
Chattanooga's labor market remains comparatively tight — Hamilton County unemployment ran 3.8% in June and the broader metro held near 3.4% as of late 2025 — but momentum has split along sector lines, with manufacturing contraction offsetting continued strength in healthcare and logistics-adjacent hiring. Statewide job growth has cooled to roughly 0.9% projected for 2026, well below Tennessee's historical pace, and Chattanooga's gains lag Nashville's tech- and investment-driven expansion, suggesting the metro's momentum is steady but no longer accelerating.
Open Threads in the Data
Soft manufacturing employment alongside firm healthcare demand points to an economy where overall labor supply is adequate but unevenly distributed across sectors — a relevant signal for economic development corps weighing incentive packages or site-selection pitches tied to specific industries. Commerce leaders evaluating expansion timing should weigh that Chattanooga's wage growth in several white-collar categories (financial analyst, accountant) is outpacing stable-to-declining categories like software engineering and retail, consistent with a local economy still anchored in traditional services and logistics rather than tech. Current conditions suggest monitoring sector-specific momentum before assuming metro-wide tightness applies uniformly across the business base.
Advertised Pay Indicators · WageScape Benchmark 25 Jobs
Job postings data for the Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA metro — median advertised pay, its recent trend, and the number of active postings behind each figure. Jobs are grouped for readability and are not the same as the 10 sector classifications on the next page. For additional job detail contact WageScape.
Retail Trade
| Retail Sales Associate |
$27,040 |
→ Stable |
2,940 |
| Retail Cashier |
$25,067 |
↓ Moderate decline |
1,979 |
Transportation & Warehousing
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate |
$33,861 |
↓ Moderate decline |
543 |
| CDL Truck Driver |
$78,000 |
↑ Moderate increase |
5,712 |
| Delivery Driver |
$32,401 |
→ Stable |
2,464 |
| Warehouse Manager |
$66,854 |
→ Stable |
25 |
Construction
| Construction Laborer |
$37,648 |
→ Stable |
188 |
Construction/Skilled Trades
| Electrician |
$65,466 |
↑ Significant increase |
318 |
| HVAC Technician |
$60,442 |
↑ Moderate increase |
120 |
Manufacturing
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler |
$37,591 |
↑ Moderate increase |
240 |
Cross-Sector
| Customer Service Representative |
$36,423 |
↑ Moderate increase |
517 |
| Operations Manager |
$72,500 |
→ Stable |
24 |
Leisure & Hospitality
| Food Service Worker |
$31,200 |
→ Stable |
40 |
Healthcare
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide |
$34,077 |
→ Stable |
1,459 |
| Registered Nurse |
$89,446 |
↑ Moderate increase |
4,244 |
Admin/Office Support
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk |
$37,766 |
→ Stable |
435 |
Information/Technology
| Software Engineer |
$102,714 |
↓ Significant decline |
320 |
| Data Engineer |
$117,753 |
→ Stable |
61 |
Professional & Business Services
| Accountant |
$71,731 |
↑ Moderate increase |
558 |
| HR Generalist/Manager |
$65,312 |
↑ Significant increase |
133 |
| Marketing Specialist |
$51,337 |
↑ Moderate increase |
85 |
| Business Analyst |
$93,732 |
↑ Moderate increase |
60 |
Finance & Insurance
| Financial Analyst |
$83,832 |
↑ Significant increase |
71 |
Government/Education
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher |
$50,000 |
→ Stable |
2,199 |
Cross-Sector Sales
| Account Manager |
$70,000 |
↓ Moderate decline |
426 |
Industry Snapshot · Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA
Advertised pay and job-posting trends across the whole metro economy, rolled up by employer industry — not just the bellwether roles above.
| Sector |
Median Pay Change |
Job Postings Change |
| Construction |
↑ +3.9% |
↑ +17.3% |
| Manufacturing |
↑ +9.2% |
→ −1.0% |
| Retail Trade |
↑ +11.4% |
↓ −4.6% |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities |
↑ +41.5% |
↓ −20.0% |
| Information |
↑ +23.2% |
→ +0.2% |
| Financial Activities |
↑ +25.4% |
↑ +8.2% |
| Professional & Business Services |
↓ −5.1% |
↑ +9.3% |
| Education & Health Services |
→ +1.4% |
↑ +8.4% |
| Leisure & Hospitality |
↓ −3.7% |
→ −0.4% |
| Government |
↑ +24.0% |
↓ −35.3% |
Looking Ahead · Next 30–60 Days
Emerging pressure point
Manufacturing remains the state's most layoff-exposed sector, and Chattanooga's industrial base is more manufacturing-dependent than Nashville's. Watch whether WARN filings or plant-level announcements emerge locally over the next two months.
Potential inflection point
UT Chattanooga's Center for Regional Economic Research projected 3,200 new metro jobs for 2026, concentrated in the second half of the year. Whether that materializes will be a key test of whether the metro's growth is merely stabilizing or re-accelerating.
Worth watching
National government payrolls have shed workers for twelve straight months (down 216,000), while Tennessee's August gains were led partly by local government and education. Local public-sector stability may be diverging from the national trend, worth confirming as more data arrives.
Early indicator
Tariff and immigration-enforcement policy continue to surface as supply-chain and labor-availability variables in Boyd Center commentary, without yet showing a clear Chattanooga-specific effect. Track whether logistics- or manufacturing-heavy employers cite either factor directly in coming announcements.
Sources & Methodology
Pay and hiring data provided by WageScape. See every source cited in this report, with links →
Advertised pay reflects the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro, not survey or payroll data. Pay trends compare the current period with the prior period for the same metro and role. Sector figures group postings by the employer's industry classification; sectors with limited classified postings are marked as such rather than estimated. This briefing is independent of, and complements, official statistics from the BLS and state labor market information offices.
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