Jobless rate unchanged

Published 10:55 pm Sunday, January 10, 2016

Beaufort County’s unemployment rate did not change from October 2015 to November 2015, according to the Labor & Economics Analysis Division of the N.C. Department of Commerce.

The unemployment rate for those two months was 6.4 percent. In August 2015, the unemployment rate was 7.1 percent, according to LEAD data. The state’s unemployment rate for November 2015 was 5.5 percent, the same rate as in October 2015.

Beaufort County’s workforce for November 2015 was at 19,949 people, with 1,280 of them unable to secure employment, according to LEAD data. That meant 18,669 people in that workforce were drawing paychecks during that month. For October, Beaufort County’s workforce totaled 19,907 people, with 1,284 of those people without jobs, according to LEAD data. That meant 18,623 people were on the job.

Beaufort County’s unemployment rate (factoring in the number of reported jobless people) for November 2015 ranked 70th in the state, the same ranking as in October 2015, according to LEAD figures. The Washington statistical area’s unemployment rate was at 6.4 percent in November 2015, the same rate as in October 2015, according to LEAD figures. The Greenville-Washington combined statistical area’s jobless rate decreased from 6 percent in October 2015 to 5.9 percent in November 2015.

In November of last year, 17 of the state’s 100 counties had unemployment rates of 5 percent or lower, 81counties had jobless rates between 5 percent and 10 percent and two counties had jobless rates of 10 percent or higher. Graham County has the highest unemployment rate in November 2015 at 11.5 percent, with Buncombe County having the lowest jobless rate in November 2015 at 4.1 percent, according to LEAD figures.

Hyde County’s unemployment rate increased from 6.8 percent in October 2015 to 8.8 percent in November 2015, according to LEAD information. In November 2014, the county’s jobless rate was at 8 percent.

Martin County’s unemployment rate for November 2015 was at 7.5 percent, down from 7.6 percent during the previous month, according to LEAD figures. The county’s jobless rate was at 6.5 percent in November 2014.

Pitt County’s unemployment rate was at 5.7 percent in November 2015, down from 5.9 percent the previous month, according to LEAD figures. The county’s jobless rate was at 5.5 percent in November 2014.

Washington County’s unemployment rate increased from 8.4 percent in October 2015 to 8.9 percent in November 2015, according to LEAD information. The county’s jobless rate was at 8.1 percent in November 2014.

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.

“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,” reads a page on the department’s website.

November’s data is preliminary, according to the website.

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.

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