North Carolina unemployment has reaached from the borders of South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. Unemployment has been hitting all of North Carolina 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh has felt the recession, and its largest city is Charlotte has been hard hit by layoffs.

The August rate marked a seventh consecutive month the number hovered above the previous historic high. Before this year, the state’s highest unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in March 1983, a level matched in January.