State jobless rate jumps to 5.8% – highest in four years

Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina’s unemployment rate jumped to 5.8 percent in May, the highest rate since February of 2004, the state’s Employment Security Commission said Friday.

A surge in the number of people looking for employment blended with the regular reduction in workforces at school districts for the summer and a drop in the number of other people employed to produce a triple whammy of bad news, said ESC spokesperson Larry Parker.

“We’re getting job orders,” he said, referring to companies wanting to hire people. “We’re also seeing more traffic in our offices with people seeking work.

“It’s very tight out there,” Parker added, referring to the job market. “There’s a lot of competition.”

While the 5.8 percent level is still much lower than the peak of 7 percent in January 2002 during the last recession, the ESC numbers showed North Carolina’s economy is cooling along with the rest of the U.S. The national jobless rate jumped half a point to 5.5 percent in May.

Rising gas and food prices have helped trigger the jump in the number of people seeking work, Parker noted. While more than 5,000 government workers – mostly school personnel – hit the unemployment roles, nearly 25,000 people also began looking for work. That number was far higher than what the state typically sees from high school and college graduates entering the workforce. “We increased from 4.6 percent to 4.7 percent in unemployment in May of last year,” Parker said.

Across the state, more people are seeking part-time work or new jobs to help cope with rising inflation, he added.

While these additional job seekers enter the market, the state’s employment rolls dropped by some 4,500 from May to 4,297,533. That total is nearly 10,000 lower than a year ago.

“With the seasonal increase in students entering the job market, North Carolina’s labor force has grown for the third consecutive month,” ESC Chairman Harry Payne Jr. said in a statement. “While we typically see an increase this time of year, the job market is tighter now than it has been in the recent past. Job seekers, whether they are students and recent graduates or workers needing additional money, are having a tougher times finding jobs than in the past couple of years.”

County by county jobless rates will be announced next week.