NC's quarterly jobs report mixed

By: Richard Craver | Statesville Record & Landmark
Published: January 25, 2011

North Carolina’s job market ended 2010 with more mixed news, with a net gain of 2,300 jobs in December being offset with a second consecutive monthly increase in the unemployment rate.
The rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 9.8 percent in December — a five-month high — the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported this week.
By comparison, the national rate dropped 0.4 percentage points to 9.4 percent — the lowest rate since May 2009 and the biggest one-month drop in at least 10 years.
“This is a rather disappointing employment report,” Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo Securities LLC, said of the state report.
“The economy seems to be recovering in a way that is not creating many jobs. Businesses, particularly in the factory sector, are boosting output by working their existing workers longer hours.”
The net gain of 2,300 nonfarm jobs in North Carolina was not unexpected given seasonal holiday hiring. There was a net gain of 3,600 jobs in professional and business services, 1,400 in manufacturing and 1,300 in trade, transportation and utilities.
However, there was a loss of 3,900 construction and 2,300 leisure and hospitality jobs, as well as losses in other categories.
The number of North Carolinians considered as employed dropped by 2,121 during December to 4.03 million. The number listed as unemployed rose 4,385 to 439,167.
The state’s labor force, at 4.47 million, is at its lowest level since July 2006, according to South by North Strategies, a Chapel Hill research firm specializing in economic and social policy.
Vitner still expects job growth this year, along with a slow decrease in the jobless rate.
“Cutbacks in construction should grind to a halt, and expansions in professional services, retailing and health care should help offset cuts in local government jobs,” he said. “Manufacturing and financial services are also slowly recovering and both will add slightly more jobs this year.”
For 2010, the commission reported a net gain of 10,400 nonfarm jobs.
The relevance of the unemployment rate has been questioned during the recession.
When calculating it, the commission does not include several categories of people: those who have stopped looking for work, those who are underemployed for their skills, those who are able to work full time but can land only part-time work, those who are receiving severance packages after the elimination of their job, and those who have exhausted their state and federal unemployment benefits.
State data are updated quarterly, while the national data are updated monthly. The latest data showed that 17.6 percent of adults in North Carolina were without jobs on Sept. 30, compared with 16.7 percent nationally in December.

NC's quarterly jobs report mixed

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