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Unemployment rates fell in 76 North Carolina counties in September , including all eight in the Triad area, the state’s Employment Security Commission reported Friday .
Jobless rates also fell for surrounding metro areas.

September was the first month in more than a year when the unemployment rates declined in all major sections of the Triad.

The Guilford County rate decreased from 11.4 percent in August to 11 percent last month, while the Greensboro-High Point metro numbers dropped from 11.5 percent to 11.1 percent.

Yet, even with the declines, employment officials and others offered words of caution.

John Quinterno, principal at South by North Strategies Ltd., an economic and social policy research firm in Chapel Hill, said changes in local unemployment rates must be taken “with a very big grain of salt.”

In an analysis of the jobless numbers, Quinterno pointed out that unemployment rates typically fall in September because of what he called back-to-school hiring.

“A comparison from August to September is not an apples-to-apples comparison,” Quinterno said. “ ... But a lower rate is better than a higher rate.”

Quinterno also said individuals who exit the labor force are not included in the official count, so the decision of large numbers of individuals to abandon job searches can lead to an understatement of the unemployment rate.

“The best that can be said about local labor markets in North Carolina is that conditions appear to have stabilized, though at unacceptably high levels,” Quinterno wrote in his analysis. “Unfortunately, it appears as if local job markets will be treading water well into the future.”

Last month, Quinterno said, employers in the state eliminated 600 more jobs than they created. Since the recession began in December of 2007, North Carolina has lost more than 248,000 positions.

During the past year, the Greensboro-High Point area has lost 21,400 jobs, a 5.8 percent decline and the second highest percentage drop in the state, trailing only the 7.1 percent employment plunge in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton area.

Last month, ESC data show, the Greensboro-High Point metro added 2,300 jobs, all of them in the government and educational and health services areas.

ESC officials said they were encouraged by recent hiring announcements, but troubled by continued layoffs around North Carolina. For instance, Dell announced earlier this month it will close its computer assembly plant in Forsyth County by January, resulting in more than 900 layoffs.

“The global and national recession continues to affect our state,” ESC Chairman Moses Carey Jr. said in a prepared statement. “While 76 counties across North Carolina experienced an unemployment rate decrease, we must remember that most of these same counties remain at a high rate.”

Last month, ESC data show, 64 counties reported rates of 10 percent or higher, including seven of eight in the Triad. That compares with 62 counties in August that reported double-digit rates.

Forsyth County reported an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent in September, the lowest county rate in the Triad and the only one below 10 percent. The rate there was down from 9.8 percent the previous month.

Rockingham County posted the biggest decline in area unemployment rates, dropping nearly a full percentage point, from 12.5 percent in August to 11.7 percent in September.

The jobless rate for the Winston-Salem metro area fell from 10 percent in August to 9.8 percent last month.

The rate for the Burlington metro area dropped from 12.1 percent in August to 11.8 percent in September.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com