Jobless Rate Drops Slightly in North Carolina

Government positions grew by 7,200 over the past month, mainly in state government and teaching jobs, according to the EDD.

Initial jobless claims – which represent the number of unemployment benefit filings made by Americans who either recently separated from a job or had not yet registered for assistance programs – clocked in at 271,000 last week.

Wichita continued to have the highest rate, at 4.3 percent. Over the year, nonfarm employment increased in 47 states and the District of Columbia and decreased in 3 states. Unemployment held steady at 4.1 percent in Montrose County. It now stands at 1.49 million, down from 1.5 million in October 2014.

Madison and Limestone Counties have the lowest unemployment rates in our area with 5 and 5.1 percent respectively. Over the month, no region had a statistically significant unemployment rate change. That’s down one-tenth of a point from 6 percent in September. “Overall, the October national job report was good, and IN was still a standout”. All divisions except the Mountain had significant rate changes from a year earlier, all of which were declines.

Vermont’s monthly unemployment rate remained at a seasonally adjusted 3.7 percent in October, matching the revised September rate.

A few states are still struggling: West Virginia’s unemployment rate has jumped to 6.9 per cent, the highest in the nation, from 6.1 per cent 12 months ago.

“It doesn’t tell you very much about what’s going on in CT for workers”, said Savage, “so even though this is a small state there’s big discrepancies between east CT and Fairfield, for instance”.

The unemployment rates for Grand Island, Lincoln and Omaha have not been seasonally adjusted, so they cannot be directly compared with the state unemployment rate. New Mexico and Nevada followed at 6.8% and 6.6% respectively.