Burke County’s unemployment situation barely changed from June to July.
The unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percent to 13 percent, but nearly 5,000 people were out of work and seeking jobs.
Burke was among the eight counties with the state’s highest unemployment rates in July.
The jobless rate went down while there was net increase in employment — 14 more Burke County people working in July than the 33,303 working in June.
The size of the county’s workforce continued the downward slide that began in March as more and more people exhausted their unemployment benefits and stopped looking for work, moved (some reluctantly) into retirement or relocated.
Burke County’s unemployment numbers peaked in February, when 6,035 were out of work and the jobless rate was 15.6 percent. July’s numbers were 1,075 lower and 2.6 percent less. However, only 550 more residents had jobs in midsummer than in the depths of winter.
When the national recession started in December 2007, there were 40,300 people in Burke County’s workforce and more than 35,800 had jobs. July’s numbers announced Friday by the North Carolina Employment Security Commission are lower by more than 2,000 workers and 2,500 jobs.
“Job growth across all sectors continues to be a challenge,” said ESC Chairman Lynn R. Holmes. “We experienced job growth in some sectors, but had a large loss in government, due mostly to declines in local school employment. We would like to see more consistent growth throughout all job sectors.”
Burke County Public Schools is among many districts that did not renew teachers’ contracts for the year that started July 1. Earlier this month, Superintendent Art Stellar said 10 of the 70 teachers “pink-slipped” in May still hoped to be rehired. Some number of others remained unemployed, including ones who decided to go back to school for advanced degrees or specialization.
Holmes previously said the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 9.8 percent in July, but the state also lost nearly 30,000 jobs. More than 440,000 people were unemployed.
The unemployment rates decreased in 86 N.C. 100 counties in July, increased in six counties and remained the same in eight.
“However, over half of our counties had unemployment rates over 10 percent,” Holmes said. “Local communities continue to be challenged by the current economic conditions.”
More than half of North Carolina’s counties were at or above the state’s unadjusted unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, including all four (Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba) in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metropolitan statistical area (MSA).
Jobless rates decreased in all 14 of the state’s MSAs, falling to 12.7 percent in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton where more than 21,000 people remain unemployed and seeking work.
The Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton MSA in July experienced the loss of 2,600 jobs in government, including those of temporary census workers.
On the web: www.ncesc.com.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement