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NC unemployment rate remains below national average

Employers in North Carolina added 10,277 people to their payrolls in March, helping to keep the state's unemployment rate below the national average for the second straight month.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Employers in North Carolina added 10,277 people to their payrolls in March, helping to keep the state’s unemployment rate below the national average for the second straight month.

North Carolina’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March was 6.3 percent, compared with the national rate of 6.7 percent, according to figures released Monday by the state’s Department of Commerce.

The state’s unemployment rate in February was 6.4 percent, while the national rate was 6.7 percent.

Over the month, the number of unemployed people in North Carolina decreased to 294,658.

“The March jobs report is more welcome news, but there is still a lot of work to do,” Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement. “The continued progress that we have made over the last 15 months is evidence that the policy changes we made are working. While we continue to see encouraging results, the hard work is far from over, and we will use the upcoming short session to pursue even more policies that put North Carolinians back to work.”

State officials said job growth happened in seven sectors, including professional and business services; trade, transportation and utilities; education and health; leisure and hospitality; manufacturing and construction. Job losses occurred in the government, finance, mining and logging, and information sectors.

The figures do not take into account unemployed people who have stopped looking for work.

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