By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Rowan County’s jobless rate inched over 8 percent in August, further reflection of the troubled economy in the state and country.
The Rowan unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August, up from a readjusted 8 percent for July. (Previously, the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina had put Rowan’s unemployment rate at 7.9 percent in July.)
The jobless rate has jumped dramatically since June, when it was 6.3 percent, and April, when it was 5.2 percent.
Among the state’s 100 counties, Rowan County came in sixth in the most unemployment insurance benefits paid in August at $2,337,830.
It trailed only Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford, Forsyth and Gaston.
The August rate in Rowan does not yet reflect Freightliner’s call back of some 650 workers and the re-establishment of the second shift at the truck manufacturing plant in Cleveland.
The Employment Security Commission reported that 5,838 people were out of work in August out of Rowan County’s labor force of 71,743.
Here are the jobless rates in the counties around Rowan:
– Cabarrus County ó 6.6 percent, up from 6.5 percent in July.
– Davidson County ó 7.7 percent, down from 7.8 percent.
– Davie County ó 7.4 percent, up from 7.1 percent.
– Iredell County ó 6.8 percent, up from 6.7 percent.
– Stanly County ó 7 percent, up from 6.8 percent.
The Employment Security Commission said jobless rates in August dropped in 58 of the state’s 100 counties.
North Carolina had a 6.8 percent unemployment rate for August.
There are 23 counties with higher unemployment rates than Rowan’s, with Scotland County’s the highest at 12 percent.