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Site SearchRaleigh, N.C. — North Carolina's unemployment rate decreased slightly as the state added 17,400 non-farm jobs in February, the state Employment Security Commission reported Friday.
The unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a point from January, to 9.7 percent. Excluding the farm industry, North Carolina's economy has added 30,500 jobs so far this year.
"We are showing signs of slow but steady progress, with job gains in February and over the year," ESC Chairwoman Lynn R. Holmes said in a statement.
Seasonally adjusted numbers show that 4,030,025 people were working in North Carolina this past month. The number of people unemployed decreased by 4,275, to 435,297.
A year ago, the unemployment rate was 11.4 percent. Since then, the labor force has shrunk by nearly 92,000 people, with 84,742 fewer unemployed workers and 7,220 fewer employed workers.
In February, the professional and business sectors saw the biggest gain in jobs, at 6,800. The construction and education and health services fields also added more than 4,000 jobs each.
The government sector had the biggest loss, at 3,000 jobs, while the trade, transportation and utilities sector lost 1,600 jobs.
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March 25, 2011 5:40 p.m.
March 25, 2011 4:51 p.m.
Growth figures for the fourth quarter of 2010 have been revised upward to 3.1% from the 2.8% previously reported.
The rise was put down to more companies re-stocking and buying more plant and equipment than was believed.
For the final three months of 2010, consumer spending grew at an annual rate of 4%, the strongest quarter for four years.
Residential construction was growing at an annual rate of 3.3% in the final three months of the year after plunging at a 27.3% rate in the July-September quarter." BBC NEWS ... TODAY! Why do you NEVER hear these things on WRAL???
March 25, 2011 3:31 p.m.
Fortunately, statistical research has already been compiled on this subject:
See here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm And here: http://tinyurl.com/5wj9zw9 And here: http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/ib278/
I suppose if you have no education, no experience, and no ability to communicate properly, THEN your argument may have substance. Else, it sounds like you need to do a bit more research before making uneducated comments.
March 25, 2011 3:26 p.m.
Well, you might have a point there, as your comment illustrates.
March 25, 2011 3:01 p.m.