{"id":663,"date":"2026-01-20T02:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/crer\/?p=663"},"modified":"2026-05-24T02:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:50:39","slug":"1-20-26-chattanooga-job-growth-could-normalize-after-slow-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/crer\/2026\/01\/20\/1-20-26-chattanooga-job-growth-could-normalize-after-slow-year\/","title":{"rendered":"1\/20\/26: Chattanooga Job Growth Could Normalize After Slow Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Chattanooga Times Free Press had a story on the <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1jzShHmh1cOOIRLtODLDuY3I2Jxn6Csmc\/view\">most recent CRER forecast<\/a> for the Chattanooga MSA economy:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"588\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/152\/2026\/04\/Picture2-1-1024x588.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-650\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7313877942272873;width:368px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/152\/2026\/04\/Picture2-1-1024x588.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/152\/2026\/04\/Picture2-1-768x441.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/152\/2026\/04\/Picture2-1-580x333.png 580w, https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/152\/2026\/04\/Picture2-1-610x350.png 610w, https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/152\/2026\/04\/Picture2-1.png 1163w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>The Chattanooga region saw a net gain of 2,000 jobs in 2025. Excluding the pandemic, that makes it the weakest year for job growth since 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>However, that rate could increase over the next couple years, with the region seeing a net increase of 5,000 jobs in 2026 and 7,000 in 2027,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1jzShHmh1cOOIRLtODLDuY3I2Jxn6Csmc\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to a report<\/a>\u00a0from the Center for Regional Economic Research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Job growth in the first half of 2026 will likely remain relatively weak, the report predicts, before slowly rising and normalizing by the end of the year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesfreepress.com\/news\/2026\/jan\/20\/chattanooga-job-growth-could-normalize-after-slow\/\">Read the rest of the story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chattanooga Times Free Press had a story on the most recent CRER forecast for the Chattanooga MSA economy: The Chattanooga region saw a net gain of 2,000 jobs in 2025. Excluding the pandemic, that makes it the weakest year for job growth since 2014. However, that rate could increase over the next couple years,&hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><span><a class=\"more-link button text\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/crer\/2026\/01\/20\/1-20-26-chattanooga-job-growth-could-normalize-after-slow-year\/\"><span>Continue Reading <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2009,"featured_media":650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-forecast","8":"category-media","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>1\/20\/26: Chattanooga Job Growth Could Normalize After Slow Year - Center for Regional Economic Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/crer\/2026\/01\/20\/1-20-26-chattanooga-job-growth-could-normalize-after-slow-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1\/20\/26: Chattanooga Job Growth Could Normalize After Slow Year - Center for Regional Economic Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Chattanooga Times Free Press had a story on the most recent CRER forecast for the Chattanooga MSA economy: The Chattanooga region saw a net gain of 2,000 jobs in 2025. Excluding the pandemic, that makes it the weakest year for job growth since 2014. 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