RALEIGH (AP) ó The number of North Carolina workers who want a job but can’t find one remains at an all-time high, with nearly 400,000 of the state’s residents out of work.
The Employment Security Commission of North Carolina said Friday the jobless rate hit 8.7 percent in December. That’s the highest level since the recession of the early 1980s, when the rate reached 9 percent in June 1983.
The jobless rate climbed from 7.8 percent in November 2008 and 4.7 percent in December 2007. The national unemployment rate was 7.2 percent last month.
Since this time last year, unemployment has increased by nearly 185,184 people. State leaders have worried that North Carolina’s job market will continue to get worse in 2009 as the large banking industry prepares to shed jobs.
Rowan County’s unemployment rate in November was 8.6 percent. The state will release county statistics for December next week.