Jobless rate rises again for Triad : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

Unemployment rates rose in cities, counties and metropolitan areas across the Triad in June and in some cases have returned to levels reached a year ago.

In Greensboro, for example, last month’s jobless rate hit 10.8 percent, equal to the rate a year earlier and up from 9.9 percent in January.

“A bad local report is not surprising given the bad national and state numbers,” said John Quinterno, a principal with South by North Strategies, a research firm in Chapel Hill. “It reiterates that we really are not seeing recovery setting in across North Carolina.”

The June estimates from the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina showed that unemployment rates rose in 91 of the state’s 100 counties.

Of those, 68 counties had rates of 10 percent or higher compared with 56 in May.

“North Carolina counties are having a hard time climbing out of the 2007-2009 recession,” Allan Freyer, an analyst with the N.C. Budget and Tax Center in Raleigh, wrote in a report Friday. “Public sector layoffs aren’t helping matters.”

Last month, the public sector shed 10,200 jobs statewide.

ESC officials said June is a month marked by seasonal layoffs and hirings, which can cause the unemployment rate to fluctuate.

“Now is the time you have students entering the labor market looking for work,” said Larry Parker, an ESC spokesman in Raleigh. “If they don’t find work, they will be counted as unemployed and the rates will go up.”

If the June jobs report contained any local highlights, it came from the fact that the Greensboro-High Point metropolitan area, which includes Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham counties, produced the greatest job growth among the state’s 14 metro areas.

Employment in the region increased by 2,800 in June and by 2,300 over the past year. The area also produced the largest monthly percentage increase at 0.8 percent.

“It’s the best of a bad situation,” Quinterno said of the region’s job performance. “Nobody performed all that well.”

To put the region’s performance in perspective, it had more unemployed people in June (39,307) than it had in January (38,437).

Since the start of the recession in 2007, North Carolina has lost 301,100 jobs, or 7.2 percent of its employment base, and has seen its unadjusted jobless rate jump from 4.7 percent to 10.4 percent.

Two years after the end of the recession, Quinterno said, the share of adults with a job is lower than when the downturn began. In June, only 55.8 percent of working-age Tar Heels had jobs compared to 62.4 percent in December 2007.

“North Carolina’s labor market remains down and out,” he wrote in his June jobs report. “2011 is shaping up to be yet another lost year for working North Carolinians.”

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

Mr. JMS

July 30, 2011 - 7:55 am EDT

Obama and the democrats call what we're in "a recovery".
They have had every opportunity to turn this country around and every time they have choosen the wrong direction for this country. And the jobless rate report PROVES it.

swerdna

July 30, 2011 - 8:40 am EDT

But.... but..... obama SAID if we passed the stimulus bill, this wouldn't happen!

When are all you people that support him finally going to understand that he has taken this country in the wrong direction with his spending projects? When most of us can't afford things, we cut back on our spending. When obama can't afford something, he spends more!

Recent reports have indicated the unemployment rate for blacks exceeds that of whites. What do you, who voted race rather than qualifications, think about your messiah now? Explain to me how trickle up economy will work? More like trickle up poverty!

awsmview

July 30, 2011 - 8:49 am EDT

This all about JOBS !
Yet BOTH PARTIES are SILENT about Job Creation.
All they are talking about is the AFFECT of Over 9 Million plus Jobs leaving the United States.
Americans are seeing a LOWER LIVING STANDARD so that we are then “on par” with the slave-wage workers in China and Mexico and India?
To say nothing about the New POOR.
It boils down to redistributing of wealth.
People are now thought of as disposable.

scribonz

July 30, 2011 - 9:22 am EDT

This is pretty much as many economists predicted. If government goes in to a major budget cutting mode it will lead to a double dip recession. The state legislature and the house of representatives are now controlled by tea party republicans and all they are interested in doing is slashing and burning the budget by whatever means possible. Is it any wonder why the unempoyment rate is going up when there have been massive job cuts in public schools and universties.

July 30, 2011 - 11:55 am EDT

"... all they are interested in doing is slashing and burning the budget by whatever means possible"

The budget NEEDS to be slashed and burned and severe spending cuts in everything that's not essential be put into place. Time to stop spending on the "wants" and only fund the "needs." Time to stop spending on insane plans that have done nothing but put us further in the hole. With the money obama put into "creating jobs," he'd have been better off giving each person $100,000 cash to spend as they wished with the understanding that no further money would come. It would have been far better than the $250,000+ each "created" job cost us taxpayers. Cash for clunkers? Another bomb. Stimulus? Nothing but flushing money down the hole. Even obama himself admitted the jobs weren't as "shovel ready" as he thought! We have a near-idiot running this country who doesn't thoroughly investigate a plan before putting it into place. In the words of Pelosi, "we have to pass... so we can find out..."

We're in a mess! And obamacare isn't even fully in place!

obama's pretty much proven that SPENDING doesn't create jobs or improve the economy! Sure, he inherited a mess, but he's been operating unrestrained with no budget and insane spending which has exacerbated the situation he inherited. He's proven himself to be nothing better than a community organizer. Those that fell for his promises and voted for him deserve what they're getting. Unfortunately, those of us who didn't, find ourselves in the sinking ship as well.

July 30, 2011 - 12:05 pm EDT

It is ridiculus to blame the high unemployment on the tea party. That's simply crazy.
What is NOT ridiculus and is very scary is the administration and the democrats putting into place government programs (Obamacare, Cap & Trade, etc) that are anti-business. This reason unemployment is continuing to go higher and higher can be summed up in 1 word: democRATs.

July 30, 2011 - 1:06 pm EDT

What you are seeing with the debt ceiling dead lock in congress is a good example of how extreme the newly elected tea party politicians are. They would much rather see the government go in to default and send the economy down the tubes than to compromise on a balanced budget plan. If they can prolong the recession and the misery of the jobless they can then blame it all on Obama.

July 30, 2011 - 1:53 pm EDT

lol And obama and friends aren't extreme? Have some more Kool Aid.

obama and his big government know that once they get the people totally dependent on the government, they will control them. He's successfully destroying this country. Go on, take another sip.

HotRodLincoln

July 30, 2011 - 9:47 am EDT

School teachers laid off by Phil Burger.

July 30, 2011 - 12:08 pm EDT

You need to be educated by someone other than the liberal media. The NC Senate does not lay off teachers. That decision is made my local school boards and administrators.

goodtoknow

July 30, 2011 - 9:51 am EDT

The reason unemployment is so high is that Obama's Czar regulators are destroying free enterprise. No company knows yet what is coming out of the administration connected to Obamacare. It was reported this week that Obamacare would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Large employers will no longer provide health care and the people themselves would be shopping for their own insurance. Employers large and small cannot afford the cost of hiring due to Obamacare so companies will have to cut back. This is just because of Obamacare, the rest of the regulations made by the czars and the recent wall street regulations passed by the Dems before the end of last year have tied the hands of companies so tight they cannot risk increasing employment.

Dman94

July 30, 2011 - 10:32 am EDT

Wow, I cannot believe the comments made. The republicans talked about job creation and saving monies. Yet, none of that has come to fruition. When are people going to begin to see the light that without spending some money, NOTHING will be created. Many conservatives rail about having to take a risk (be willing to fail) to earn revenue. Yet, they fail to realize that is what the Stimulus Bill was designed to do. Sadly, that failed to come to full fruition.

And to the one who wanted to make note of the racial differences in the unemployment rate; what rock have you been living under? That difference has always been there. In difficult economic times it is ALWAYS greater! I have yet to see/hear of how the US House of Representatives has worked on ANY legislation seeking to stimulate job growth/creation. Yet, this was a basic premise for the republican increase in the US House and Senate! It seems that they are failing miserably; along with their democratic counterparts!

Now it appears that the republicans are hell-bent on sending the US into a major economic upheaval! How many of the conservative, small business people who rant and rail in these blogs will still support them should this come to full fruition?

And please, when making comments about the supposed effects of the (supposed) Healthcare Reform, give references so that others can have the benefit of reading the reports!

July 30, 2011 - 11:52 am EDT

Advice taken, but I do not watch the news nor read columns with pen and paper at my side. I hear it or read it and store the best I can. Perhaps in the future I will note the news and articles that may be of importance in the future. My desk is already full of paperwork. I will assure you though, this was reported this week.

Again, thanks for your advice.

July 30, 2011 - 12:01 pm EDT

The racial difference in unemployment has always been there, but not to the degree it is now. Put down the Kool ade and do some research. It's all over the news, and NC is among the worst. Your man has failed to deliver, yet you appear to still think he's going to save your butt!

While you're ranting, care to explain how a trickle up economy will work? To date, I've asked this question of those like you over and over and yet to have an answer.

UNCGProf

July 31, 2011 - 1:27 pm EDT

I'll tell you how- 70% of the GDP is based on consumer spending.If the consumers don't have money, they won't be spending.

Doug Johnson

July 30, 2011 - 11:51 am EDT

Boston Scientific, is layoff 1200 folks.
They made it clear is was because of Obama care
Did not hear that on the Obama controlled media.
Does the papers, not understand, when people lose their jobs, they can not afford papers?
Are they so loyal to Obama , they do not care?

July 30, 2011 - 12:04 pm EDT

Also, do those people who claim it's just the low-paying jobs that are being cut not listen to the news? There are MBA's, lawyers, PhD's, college grads, and plenty of white collar workers that are standing in that unemployment line also. Many of these have less of a chance at getting a job because they are considered "overqualified" for jobs that lower-paid workers will do.

newkid

July 30, 2011 - 12:06 pm EDT

"Does the papers, not understand, when people lose their jobs, they can not afford papers?"

I don't know, does they?

pragmatist

July 30, 2011 - 12:39 pm EDT

"Boston Scientific, is layoff (sic) 1200 folks. They make it clear is was (sic) because of Obama care"
From the Boston Globe:
"Boston Scientific Corp. said yesterday that it plans to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs worldwide during the next 2 ½ years to free money for new investments... Yesterday’s move, a day after Boston Scientific disclosed it was investing $150 million and hiring 1,000 people in China, raised fears that the company will gradually shift more work to foreign sites..."

July 30, 2011 - 1:48 pm EDT

On the news yesterday...CEO of GE has sent 20,000 jobs to China and now GE is sending a whole division, I don't know how many jobs, to China. CEO Emmelt is a close friend of Obama and Obama put him in charge of creating and getting new jobs for the US. Some friend. This by the way was on The Five, 5PM FOX NETWORK.

July 30, 2011 - 1:55 pm EDT

P.S. GE paid 0 taxes last year.

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