News & Record writes:
The rate was 4 percent, down from 4.1 percent in July. The rate reached a near 12-year low of 3.7 percent in April and May.
The rate is down from 4.9 percent in August 2017 and has been below the 5 percent threshold for more than a year. That’s the level considered by most economists as representing full employment — the economic point at which everyone who wants a job has one, employers have the skilled workers they need and there is limited inflationary pressure on wages.
Mitch Kokai, a policy analyst with Libertarian think tank John Locke Foundation, said that with the jobless rate so low in North Carolina’s urban areas, “it’s unclear whether the generally good economic news will play its normal role in the election.”
“For one thing, it’s not clear whether at the state level voters will reward the Democratic Party of the governor, Roy Cooper, or the Republican Party of the lawmakers who created the policies that have contributed to the good economic news.”
“It’s also unclear whether the economy will take a back seat to the idea of making the election a referendum on Donald Trump, or whether the on-going state response to a devastating hurricane will overshadow pocketbook issues.”
