Job growth slowed in the Chattanooga metro area in mid-2024 and has yet to rebound. The CRER’s forecasts for quarterly Chattanooga job growth through 2027 are provided by the blue bars in the middle figure. Job growth over the next five quarters is expected to be weak, primarily because of tepid growth at the national…
10/15/26: White Paper – Small Business Trends in Chattanooga
A new white paper released by the CRER looks at trends in small business in Chattanooga since 1978. Small firms are much more numerous in Chattanooga than are medium and large firms, although their number has grown much more slowly. Between 1978 and 2023, the number of small firms grew by 27 percent whereas the…
8/11/26: New White Paper on Electricity Affordability in Tennessee
A new CRER white paper by William Plank, a CRER Research Fellow and EPB Community Economist, explores recent trends in electricity affordability in Tennessee relative to similar states. Affordability is measured by the median household’s electricity burden, or the share of its annual income spent on electricity. Despite relatively sharp increases in prices since 2020, the…
7/15/26: Is Tennessee’s EV Appetite Cooling?
Volkswagen announced it would stop producing it’s ID 4 models at their plant in Chattanooga earlier this year. NewsChannel 9 covered changes in the EV market in Tennessee, particularly the impact that they will have on Chattanooga-based Volkswagen. A new report says demand for electric vehicles (EVs) has dropped in Tennessee, but even as the…
7/15/26: Latest Forecast for the Chattanooga Metro Economy
The CRER released its latest forecast of employment growth for the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area. The forecasts are released quarterly and can be found on the CRER website. Job growth is forecast to grow slowly through the rest of 2026, gradually picking up pace as the national economy recovers from a year of slow job…