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Triad  labor markets continued to struggle in November , according to data released by the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina.

All but two areas in the region posted double-digit unemployment rates for the month. The exceptions — Forsyth County  (9.7 percent ) and Winston-Salem (9.8 percent ) — slipped just below 10 percent .

“Things didn’t deteriorate,” Don Jud , professor emeritus at UNCG’s Bryan School of Business and Economics , said of November’s  figures, the most recent job data available. “But there is no sign that things are really improving.”

The misery remained widespread.

Statewide, November  unemployment rates exceeded 10 percent in 68 counties,  and 33  were at or above 12 percent . In October , 64  counties posted rates of 10 percent  or higher.

Observers said job losses in the state appear to have bottomed out in July , but there has been little encouraging news since.

“Local labor markets are just drifting along the bottom of the recession,” John Quinterno , principal at South by North Strategies Ltd.  in Chapel Hill , wrote in his monthly analysis. “... The November  report shows a labor market that is going nowhere fast.”

In November , Quinterno reported, employers shed 8,800  more jobs than they added, with the private sector accounting for all but 300  of those losses.

Since the recession began in December 2007 , North Carolina  has lost 250,000  jobs, a 6 percent  decline.

Quinterno said those cuts have resulted in significant financial hardships for hundreds of thousands of Tar Heels .

For example, 578,000  North Carolina households received food stamps in November , a 23 percent  increase from a year earlier.

 In just the past year, the Greensboro-High Point  metro area has shed 15,800  positions.

 Even so, the unemployment rate for the two cities dropped from 11.3 percent  in October  to 11.2 percent  in November .

Jud said the local unemployment rate likely won’t improve until the middle of the year.

“Even then, it’s going to be slow,” Jud said. “My guess is that it will be at or below 10 percent by the end of the year.”

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