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.
North Carolina’s unemployment rate has hovered near 11 percent since February, when it hit 10.7 percent, and hasn’t changed more than a few percentage points since then.
The state topped the national rate for August, which was 9.7 percent. The ESC said that since the recession began in December 2007, unemployment has increased more than 116 percent in the state, compared with 98 percent nationwide.
However, the ESC said the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance in August was 82,299, a drop of 20,092 from a month earlier. Of those August claims, more than half were “attached” to a payroll, meaning the workers expected to be recalled to their jobs.
“Unemployment is continuing to rise, but it’s rising less rapidly,” Hall said. “It continues to be severe, but it’s not as severe. That doesn’t do you much good if you’re unemployed.”
In addition, government jobs rebounded, adding 20,100 jobs for a 2.9 percent increase. Most of those jobs were in education and those jobs likely were the result of public schools laying off employees, then rehiring them after the Legislature passed a budget.
In July, local governments issued more pink slips than any other field, cutting 22,600 jobs.
A bill offered by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and expected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.
The 13-week extension would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legislation last year and in the stimulus bill enacted last February.
People from North Carolina to California “have been calling my office to tell me they still cannot find work a year or more after becoming unemployed, and they need some additional help to keep their heads above water,” McDermott said.
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