Memphis Standard

Shelby County recorded an unemployment rate of 7.6% among residents aged 16 and 65 years old in 2021. That’s 35,349 people out of the 929,178 living in Shelby County at the time, according to data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The unemployment rate in Shelby County has increased compared to the 7.3% registered in 2020.

The percentage of people unemployed in Shelby County was greater than the statewide unemployment rate of 5.3%.

Of the 429,944 people who had a job during that time, 2,233 were employed in the Armed Forces and 427,711 belonged to the civilian labor force.

Employment status	Number of people	Percentage of population
Unemployed	35,349	7.6%
Employed	429,944	92.4%
Employed in civilian labor force	427,711	91.9%
Employed in armed forces	2,233	0.5%