Local 3 News covered the release of new estimates of job growth in Chattanooga and of the CRER’s latest forecast. According to CRER director and chief economist Howard Wall,
“2025 was a pretty weak year,” Wall says. “We had positive job growth, but it was choppy and not very strong.”
Wall says the job net growth was around 2,000 this past year, and in previous years, it was more than twice that, with 4,000-8,000 new jobs.
“The 2,000 jobs in a year is the slowest job growth since 2014, other than the pandemic years,” Wall says.
Wall says it’s not that people are being laid off: hiring is just slower.
He also says periods of growth or decline in certain sectors can be indicators, such as the decline in leisure and tourism and growth in healthcare and local government.
“That’s usually a sign that the economy is not doing well when those are your two strong sectors,” Wall says.