NEW HANOVER COUNTY — By barely a percentage point, North Carolina’s unemployment rate for August increased to 9.7 percent, the N.C. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced Friday.
The rate is one percentage point lower than that of August 2011 but represents more than 5,800 more people without jobs since July’s report.
“Looking at the data long-term, North Carolina has added nearly 98,000 nonfarm jobs since January 2010,” DOC Deputy Secretary Dale Carroll said in his department’s news release. “Our workforce partners and our employment services offices across our state are committed to helping employers put citizens back to work in North Carolina.”
The release added that the seasonally adjusted total nonfarm industry employment in August increased by 1,100 jobs to 3,953,400. The largest over-the-month increase was in government, which added 8,400.
The national jobless rate declined slightly to 8.1 percent, DOC added, a change of 0.2 of a percentage point.
The state will release unemployment figures for counties on Friday, September 28.
