KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Call him a "one-man-band"; his vocals carrying the melody, a harmonica the harmony, and his guitar the backbeat and rhythm.

Middle Tennessee State University student Chris Watkins is singing for his supper in Downtown Knoxville's Market Square.

By choice.

I just got back from France, and I didn't have time to find a job," says this French and Global Studies major.

"So I'm working on my music this summer."

His folk-rock attracts frequent applause and an occasional gathering.

But if his tips are any read on the state of his fans' fortunes;
But if his tips in Market Square are any read on East Tennessee's fortunes:

"I think they're holding back. It's not looking good so far."

"It's very hard to get a job right now," says Levi Graziano, who operates an herb, fertilizer and vegetable stand a few feet away from Watkins' solo act.

"I have an Associates Degree in business, and everybody with a bachelors degree is taking associates' degree positions, and everybody who has an associates degree has to take an eight dollar an hour, ten dollar an hour job."

East Tennessee's so-called stalwart employers -- the Tennessee Valley Authority, the University of Tennessee, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- still provide cushions of stability, says
Garrett Wagley, a recruiter for the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership.

"We have a pretty diversified economy," he says.

"We've felt some cuts in retail spending. But the big drivers help support restaurants and retail and that kind of thing."

"What's characteristic of this particular recesion is that its very broadly based and every industry is turning down with the exception of health care," says Dr. Bill Fox, director of UT's Center for Business and Economic Research.

The signs of that, are along Kingston Pike in Bearden and West Hills.

Amerigo Restaurant was gone months after opening.

The former K Mart, Cozy Mels Mexican restaurant, and Boaters Marine remain vacant, despite close proximity to West Town Mall.

"Many of the job cuts are coming cold," says Tim Witt, director of the Knoxville-area office of the Tennessee Career Center.

"We're having individuals come in every day who've just been laid low, and the company could have told us, but they chose not to."

Witt says that's a mistake, given that the 'newly-cut' now have far more choices for job training for retraining. The federal stimulus also has extended unemployment benefits another twenty weeks for those eligible.

"Our unemployment rate probably will remain lower than the statewide average," Dr. Fox says.

"We're almost two percent lower than the statewide average and it's pretty inconceivable to me that we catch up"

Nevertheless, UT researchers say Tennessee' unemployment rate could reach 12 percent, its highest in more than a quarter century.

The Knoxville Chamber of Commerce hasn't changed its strategies.

"We're still out recruiting, still out talking to existing industries, trying to help them expand," Wagley says.

Levi Graziano believes it's a matter of perspective.

"Opportunity knocks softly sometimes," he says.

Graziano bought a farm just as he was laid off from his working as a flooring specialist.

He's making lemonade from that lemon, figuratively, by selling furniture made from his neighbor's horse manure.

"I'm my own boss, which is great, he says.

"And I know how to market it, do my own marketing thing."