North Carolina gained 17,400 nonfarm jobs in February. The state’s unemployment decreased to 9.7 percent.
“Clearly Gov. Perdue’s focus on growing jobs in North Carolina should continue to be the No. 1 priority for North Carolina leaders,” said Employment Security Commission Chairman Lynn R. Holmes. “We are showing signs of slow but steady progress, with job gains in February and over the year.”
Seasonally adjusted total nonfarm industry employment, as gathered through the monthly survey increased by 17,400 to 3,879,300 in February. The largest over-the-month employment increase occurred in professional and business services (+6,800). The largest decrease was in trade, transportation and utilities (-1,600).
Over the year, nonfarm industry employment has increased by 30,500 jobs.
The number of people employed (seasonally adjusted) increased by 5,485 to 4,030,025.
The number of people unemployed decreased by 4,275 workers, to 435,297. Since this time last year, the number of people unemployed has decreased by 84,742 and the number of workers employed is down 7,220.
The state unemployment rate in February 2010 was 11.4 percent.
The North Carolina seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in February, a decrease of 0.1 of a percentage point from a revised 9.8 percent in January, and 1.7 percentage points lower than February 2010.
The number of persons employed increased 5,485 (0.1 percent), as those unemployed declined by 4,275 (1.0 percent).
Since the beginning of the December 2007 national recession, North Carolina has lost 292,500 (7.0 percent) total nonfarm jobs.
Manufacturing employment declined by 97,600 (18.3 percent). Of those jobs, 63.2 percent were in durable goods and 36.8 percent in nondurable goods.