North Carolina’s Employment Security Commission reports this morning an official state unemployment rate of 9.7 percent for May. That rate held steady for a third straight month.
The state rate is still higher than the 9.1 percent national average. North Carolina’s unemployment rate has topped the national average for the last six months.
Beyond the official state rate, the ESC reports that the number of people employed has grown by 12,040 to 4.06 million. In the past year, the number of unemployed people has dropped by 55,097, while the number of employed is up by 15,168. The state labor force is 39,929 people smaller than it was one year ago.
