Jobless rates fall

Published 6:41 pm Thursday, October 29, 2015

Beaufort County’s unemployment rate decreased from 7.1 percent in August to 6.4 percent in September, according to the Labor & Economics Analysis Division of the N.C. Department of Commerce.

The county’s unemployment rate in September 2014 was 6.7 percent.

The state’s unemployment rate also fell from August to September, sliding from 6.1 percent to 5.4 percent, according to LEAD data. The unemployment rate decreased from August to September in each of the state’s 100 counties.

The Washington statistical area’s unemployment rate dropped from 7.1 percent in August to 6.4 percent, according to LEAD figures.

“It is important to note that employment estimates are subject to large seasonal patterns; therefore it is advisable to focus on over-the-year changes in the not seasonally adjusted estimates,” according to a press release from the Commerce Department.

Beaufort County’s workforce totaled 19,725 people in September, with 1,259 people unable to find employment, according to LEAD data. That left 18.466 people on the job and drawing paychecks.

In September, 21 of the state’s 100 counties had unemployment rates at or below 5 percent, 77 counties had unemployment rates between 5 percent and 10 percent and two counties had jobless rates at 10 percent or higher, according to LEAD figures. Scotland County had the highest jobless rates in September at 10.2 percent. Buncombe County had the lowest jobless rate in September at 4 percent.

From August to September, Hyde County’s jobless rate fell from 6.6 percent to 6.4 percent, according to LEAD figures.

In Martin County, the unemployment rate fell from8.7 percent in August to 7.5 percent in September, according to LEAD data.

Washington County’s jobless rate decreased from 8.6 percent in August to 8.1 percent in September, according to LEAD information.

Pitt County’s unemployment rate dropped from 6.8 percent in August to 5.9 percent in September, according to LEAD figures.

The Greenville-Washington combined statistical area’s jobless rate declined from 6.8 percent in August to 6 percent in September.

The jobless figures released by the Commerce Department do not include unemployed people whose unemployment insurance benefits expired and who are not listed as unemployed. Factor in those people and a county’s true jobless rate is higher.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.