Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate remained unchanged for July 2022, data from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development reveals.
The rate has held steady at 3.3% for the third consecutive month.
The state’s July rate is 0.1% higher than the all-time low unemployment rate of 3.2%, recorded in both March and April of this year.
Between July 2021 and July 2022, Tennessee employers added 110,000 new nonfarm jobs to their payrolls. The leisure and hospitality sector saw the biggest year-to-year gains. The trade, transportation, and utilities sector and the mining, logging, and construction sector saw the next highest employment increases.
In a month-to-month comparison, there were 12,400 fewer nonfarm jobs across the state in July. The local government sector accounted for the largest number of jobs lost, followed by the durable goods manufacturing sector and the mining and logging sector.
Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted civilian workforce contracted slightly in July, down 0.1% to 3,409,628 people. That 2022 figure still came in 2.3% higher than the number of individuals working across the state during the month last year.
Nationally, seasonally adjusted unemployment dropped slightly between June and July, down 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.5%.
Metro sets self-reporting program for car crashes
The Metro Nashville Police Department announced a new program effective Monday that allows motorists involved in many property damage crashes to self-report driver information and collision details through an online portal.
The system, developed by Lexis-Nexis, will route the completed reports to the MNPD’s Records Division, from where the involved parties and their insurance companies can receive copies as needed.
“As the city has grown and the demand for police services has increased, calls must be prioritized according to immediate public safety needs,” Metro Police Chief John Drake says. “During peak call volume, most property damage crashes, particularly those not blocking major thoroughfares, are lower priority calls in the classification hierarchy. This can sometimes mean long wait times, something we hope to dramatically reduce with this new program.”
Motorists involved in property damage crashes, including those in private parking lots, are eligible to self-report through the new system so long as:
• The parties have agreed to share their driver’s license, vehicle and insurance information, and agree on the circumstances of the crash.
• There are no injuries.
• No involved vehicle is blocking a roadway due to inoperability.
• The crash does not involve a hit-and-run.
• The crash does not involve a DUI or other criminal matter.
More information on the self-reporting of property damage crashes can be found on the MNPD’s website and through HubNashville.
Fisk announces two new buildings
Fisk University announced that it has secured financing for two new buildings to be completed by the fall of 2024, a 300-bed living and learning facility and a new state of the art science building.
“We could not be more excited about everything that is happening on campus and particularly the announcement of these two new buildings,” says Fisk University board chair Frank Sims. “This announcement is the result of everything that has transpired over the past five years and our remarkable students could not be more deserving of this campus overhaul.”
“With the increases in enrollment, Fisk is already at capacity and this new living and learning center will take us one step closer to our goal of once again being a campus of 1,600-1,800 students,” says Fisk President Vann Newkirk.
The announcement of the new buildings comes on the heels of Fisk experiencing an enrollment increase of 40% over the past four year, despite declines in overall HBCU enrollment.
The new facilities join a campuswide overhaul already underway, including major renovations to Jubilee Hall, the full-scale restoration of the historic Driskell home as well as the Boyd House and the John Work home.
TechnologyAdvice acquires Selling Signals
Selling Signals, an online publication for sales professionals, announced its acquisition by TechnologyAdvice, a B2B media platform with the mission of creating opportunities for B2B technology buyers and vendors.
This acquisition comes as part of TechnologyAdvice’s purchase of Marc Waring Ventures – the lead investor in Selling Signals – which was finalized in July.
“We’re excited to join TechnologyAdvice because of the opportunities it creates for our readership and team,” says Evan Tarver, co-founder and CEO at Selling Signals. “The mission and vision of TechnologyAdvice closely align with our own, and we look forward to collaborating with other media brands in their portfolio to grow our collective audience of B2B tech buyers.”
The acquisition provides Selling Signals the resources to pursue its vision of becoming the go-to digital resource and community for sales professionals. Through this purchase, Selling Signals will also work directly with the TechnologyAdvice team to deliver the best information to technology buyers and vendors across its entire portfolio of online publications.
Endeavor ranked on Inc. top 5,000 list
Endeavor Business Media has been ranked No. 1,784 in the top 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. by the Inc. 5000 Awards.
Ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021, this award recognizes the dynamic expansion of Endeavor in becoming one of the largest B2B media companies in North America.
“We are honored to be ranked among some of the nation’s most successful private companies and take great pride in the acknowledgment of our significant growth in the four years since our founding,” Endeavor’s CEO Chris Ferrell says.
The Inc. 5000 Awards were introduced in 1982 with the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. Since then, this prestigious list of the nation’s most successful private companies has become a symbol of entrepreneurial success.
HCA grants $600K to first responder org
HCA Healthcare, Inc. announced a $600,000 grant to Volunteers of America through the HCA Healthcare Foundation and its Healthier Tomorrow Fund to promote mental wellness and resilience among first responders.
Through this contribution, VOA intends to scale its VOA|ReST 4 First Responders program in targeted areas served by HCA Healthcare, such as HealthONE in Denver, Medical City Healthcare in Dallas-Fort Worth and HCA Florida Healthcare.
VOA has been providing support to military veterans through the Shay Moral Injury Center’s evidence-based Resilience Strengthen Training program since 2017.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, VOA adapted the program for front line health care workers to process moral distress and maintain resilience and commitment to their work. The VOA|ReST 4 First Responders program is an online, one-hour small group process led by a trained peer specialist to address the experience of workplace stress and trauma.
Thermo Fisher opens largest single-use site
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today opened its largest single-use technology manufacturing site in Lebanon.
The $105 million, 400,000-square-foot facility enables the company to help meet rapidly growing demand for the bioprocessing materials needed to produce vaccines and breakthrough therapies for cancer and other diseases.
This new site is part of Thermo Fisher’s $650 million multiyear investment to expand its bioprocessing production capabilities.
The Lebanon facility will manufacture customizable, single-use BioProcess Containers and fluid transfer assembly systems that are in high demand by biopharma companies.
The completed site will include 92,000 square-feet of clean room and will also include a dedicated line for the recently released Thermo Scientific DynaDrive Bioreactor.
The site location is bringing critical materials closer to biopharma customers in the region, with Nashville among the top 10 fastest-growing biotech hubs in the U.S.
Celero expands network with Arkansas purchase
Celero Commerce, a top 10 U.S. non-bank payment processor, announced the acquisition of Community Bankers Merchant Services, a provider of electronic transaction processing through community and regional banks nationwide.
With the addition of Arkansas-based CBMS, Celero will serve over 53,000 merchants nationwide, processing approximately $21 billion in annual card volume.
Founded in 1989 by Bob Morris, CBMS has partnered with banks for 30-plus years, offering a full suite of payment processing solutions for their small and mid-sized business customers.
State joins network for data-driven policies
Tennessee is joining a network of states to advance state use of evidence-based policymaking.
The Office of Evidence and Impact in the Department of Finance and Administration will join the Governing for Results Network, a community of state executive and legislative branch leaders who exchange insights and best practices for greater efficiencies and improved services to citizens.
The project is a collaboration of the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments and the Policy Lab at Brown University. The trio of organizations bring leaders together to have candid conversations, share challenges and ideas, and learn from other states’ approaches.
Legislators, legislative staff and executive branch leaders from 10 other states – Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, New York, Rhode Island and Utah – comprise the network.
OEI was launched in the spring of 2019, now working with agencies to classify state programs based on the level of available supporting evidence and to follow the principles of evidence-based budgeting.
In 2020 and 2021, the national group Results For America named Tennessee one of the top states in the nation for using data to make decisions. OEI’s Lotz was selected in 2020 to serve on the Federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building, which makes recommendations to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on how to improve data sharing and data linkage.