North Carolina unemployment is highest since 1983

Unemployment in North Carolina spiked in November, hitting the highest rate in 25 years as the pace of job losses accelerated.
The Employment Security Commission of North Carolina says the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.9 percent in November — the highest since 1983.
The number of workers with jobs fell by 58,621 on a seasonally adjusted basis. That drop accounts for more than half of the 112,300-job decline in the last 12 months.
“Global and national economic challenges have had an impact on North Carolina,” Employment Security Commission Chairman Harry Payne Jr. says in a written statement. “Many employers are faced with layoffs or cutting back hours.”
North Carolina’s labor force — persons with jobs and those actively looking for employment — also shrank in November by 22,793 workers.
And the labor force participation rate, which looks at the labor force as a percentage of the entire working-age population, was a historic low of 64.4 percent, ESC says, as many individuals simply gave up looking for jobs.
White-collar workers are being affected by the downturn as much as blue-collar types. According to the state’s survey of businesses, the sector that saw the biggest drop in jobs in November was “professional and business services.” That sector lost 13,900 jobs, or 2.8 percent of its payroll, on a seasonally adjusted basis in November.
Manufacturing lost 13,100 jobs, or 1.7 percent of its payroll from the previous month.
Across the United States, the unemployment rate in November was 6.7 percent.