NASHVILLE, Tenn. – There are new signs that the unemployment situation in Tennessee isn't getting any better, and some believe it could be getting worse.
Unemployment fell in most U.S .cities last month, but not in Tennessee's major metropolitan areas.
From March to April, Nashville's unemployment rate jumped from 8.3 percent, to 8.7 percent. In Clarksville, the numbers went from 8.2 to 8.5 percent.
To folks looking for work, that is the last thing they want to hear.
At a career center in Metro Center, 50-year-old Franklin Myatt is searching for work after a five-year battle with cancer.
"I am a great bartender, a server, I can do all the hospitality type stuff, I am good at it," said Myatt.
Franklin is new to this Career Center, but others are not, drawing unemployment as they search for a job.
Unemployment checks to 20,000 people stopped coming in mid-April, after the state no longer qualified for federal funding.
On Wednesday, Governor Haslam signed a bill into law to restore benefits for 20 more weeks, to folks who have been unemployed for more than 79 weeks.
"We think we can probably have this set up and done in a week, or maybe two at the longest," said Don Ingram with the Tennessee Department of Labor.
The benefits will be retroactive, and you have to apply for it on the Department of Labor's web site.
The state will send out a detailed letter in the mail as well.
Franklin Myatt believes his days of being a statistic are numbered as he hopes to find a job soon.
"I work hard and take care of my family, and that's what I really think the big deal is, if you can take care of your family, you are doing what you are supposed to do," Myatt told us.
Right now unemployment benefits can last up to 99 weeks. Congress passed the law back in 2009 when the economy hit rock bottom.
However, in 2012 unemployment benefits will go back to lasting only 26 weeks.
