Business

N.C. loses 12,500 jobs; unemployment increases to 9.7%

Trade, transportation and utilities sectors along with leisure and hospitality shrink by more than 10,000 workers as jobless rate ticks up from 9.7 percent in October.

Posted 2010-12-17T16:23:50+00:00 - Updated 2010-12-17T16:23:50+00:00

Job losses of more than 5,000 in two separate private sector categories helped drive up North Carolina's unemployment rate to 9.7 percent in November.

The rate, which is seasonally adjusted, was 9.6 percent in October, the lowest since January of 2009.

Job losses were worse in trade, transportation and utilities (a drop of 5,200) and leisure and hospitality (down 5,200). Construction and manufacturing jobs also fell by 2,300 and 1,600 respectively.

The education and health services sector added 4,800 jobs.

According to the North Carolina Employment Security Commission, the state lost 12,5000 non-farm jobs in November. The number of people working fell by more than 8,000 to 4,033,121.

The number of people seeking work or receiving unemployment benefits and therefore counted as part of the work force on which the employment rate is calculated increased by nearly 5,000 to 433,240 compared to October.

The unemployment rate was 10.9 percent a year ago, but the number of nonfarm jobs has declined by 6,100, the ESC noted.

Driving the jobless rate lower is the overall size of the work force, which decreased by 53,928.