The tri-county area clocked another unemployment rate dip in June.
Figures surfaced Wednesday showing the Wilmington metro area–New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties–with a 6.4 percent jobless rate.
That’s down from 6.6 percent the month prior. More notably, it’s 2.3 percentage points lower than June 2013’s rate.
Authors of the monthly reports, from the N.C. Department of Commerce, advise observers to focus on over-the-year difference for a meaningful picture of the employment landscape.
The numbers do not account for residents who have left the labor force.
In New Hanover County, a labor force of 111,146 in June included more than 6,800 people looking for work. That’s a 6.1 percent unemployment rate.
Brunswick County’s 52,479-member labor force included more than 3,600 looking for work–a 6.9 percent rate.
Pender County’s labor force of 24,918 included nearly 1,700 residents out for jobs–a 6.8 percent rate.
The biggest over-the-year employment increase in greater Wilmington was in the leisure and hospitality sector, with 2,500 jobs added–a 10.5 percent increase.
The manufacturing industry lost 200 jobs over the year, a 2.7 percent decrease.
Over the month, the government sector, at the end of the fiscal year, shed 2,400 jobs, an 8.6 percent decrease, the report said.
Eighty-one of North Carolina’s 100 counties saw rate decreases in June. Rates increased in 10 and stayed put in nine.
The highest jobless rate in the state was Scotland County’s 12.1 percent. Currituck County had the lowest at 4.2 percent.
