The state lost a total of 38,000 non-farm jobs in January.
The North Carolina will release new countywide unemployment rates on Thursday.
The Scotland County rate is expected to increase.
Burnest Graham indicated earlier that many companies slim down during the first few months of the year to meet new demands. He said the unemployment rate generally rises during this period of time.
The new Scotland County rate will factor in January closing of Waverly Mills, which was based in East Laurinburg, and layoffs at St. Andrews Presbyterian College.
The rate will not, however, reflect a number of the February layoffs, such as the 105 positions slashed at the Laurinburg Butler Manufacturing plant or the 30 jobs cut at FCC plant in Laurel Hill. It also will not include the figures for several of the retailers that closed, like CarQuest, Goody's and Peebles.
Those layoffs will be reflected in the February rates, which should be released in early April.
The unemployment rate also does not include workers whose hours were cut but are still employed.
While many analysts see this as a key factor in economic health, North Carolina does not currently release statistics on people who are working part-time or have had reductions in either their pay or the number of hours they can work.
The mounting layoffs during the month meant North Carolina and South Carolina tied for the country's largest jump in joblessness over the previous year, with each state's rate soaring by 4.7 percentage points since January 2008. North Carolina's unemployment rate for December was previously announced at 8.7 percent, but was since revised down to 8.1 percent, the Employment Security Commission said Wednesday.
The plunging opportunities for workers saw 11,500 manufacturing jobs lost in January and 10,300 jobs in construction, the sectors most battered since the U.S. housing bubble burst and the recession officially started in December 2007. Even one of the economy's few bright spots, educational and health services, shed 5,800 North Carolina jobs in January, though the sector had added 2,900 jobs overall in the previous year.
North Carolina shed jobs along with the rest of the country in January, when the national unemployment rate was 7.6 percent.
January's job losses were punctuated by layoffs of 320 jobs at boatmaker Hatteras Yachts in Craven County, 182 jobs at Master Brand Cabinets Inc. in Lenoir County, and 141 jobs at auto parts maker Getrag Corp. in Catawba County. Freightliner announced in January layoffs of nearly 1,500 workers that would take effect this week at truck plants in Rowan and Gaston counties.
The bad news for manufacturing workers continued Wednesday with Dell Corp. disclosing layoffs at its much-touted computer assembly plant in Forsyth County. Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn declined to describe the size of the layoffs at the plant, which opened in 2005 after being coaxed by promised state and local economic incentives of more than $300 million. In return, Dell said its would invest $100 million and create 1,500 jobs.
"Today we're taking some actions consistent with what we've been doing for the past year or more, really on a global basis," Blackburn said. "We're taking steps to streamline our operation and improve our competitiveness. This is just the most recent activity related to that."
Dell has been shifting more work from its own factories to contract manufacturers and correspondingly cut its work force since realizing last year it was too dependent on the sinking personal computer market and U.S. sales. The Round Rock, Texas-based company said last month it plans to cut $4 billion in annual costs by the end of fiscal 2011, $1 billion more than its earlier goal.
The state's unemployment rate last matched January's level in March 1983, when the country was mired in a serious recession characterized by a crumbling auto industry.
North Carolina's highest recorded jobless rate was 10.2 percent in February 1983. The state's records go back only to 1976, when the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics standardized its current analysis method, and were not recalculated to measure unemployment during the Great Depression, Employment Security Commission spokesman Larry Parker said.
An employment agency executive said companies she worked with were waiting to see if the Obama administration's efforts to stimulate the U.S. economy will encourage North Carolina companies to hire.
"The stimulus money has not had time to make its way into the work force yet. We're waiting every month to see what kind of impact that will make," said Anna White, a vice president for Addecco in the Charlotte area.
RBC Bank Chief Investment Officer Joe Keating noted that unemployment rates are likely to continue climbing this year since companies hold off on layoffs as long as they can, making jobless figures a lagging indicator of economic activity. Even if the government's economic policies help pull the economy out of recession later this year, the jobless rate is expected to keep climbing this year to a national level of 9 percent and stay high into 2011, Keating said in a statement.
But despite the lingering gloom, some companies continue to hire, White said. They are predominantly companies that manufacture medical devices and supplies or other health care companies, and mortgage and loan processors who are very busy as low interest rates drive homeowners to refinance their debt, White said.
Job retention in the Palmetto State is fairing worse - South Carolina reported its unemployment rate shot to 10.4 percent, the second-highest in the nation, behind Michigan.
South Carolina's unemployment rate for January was its highest in nearly 26 years. A record 227,986 people were jobless and all but 11 of the state's 46 counties had double-digit unemployment, according to the state Employment Security Commission. Even those home to the largest cities had rates above the national average of 7.6 percent for that month.
Retail trade was most afflicted, cutting 11,700 positions. Public sector job cuts numbered 8,500. Next came losses in professional and business services, which dropped 6,000 jobs; manufacturing was down 5,900; leisure and hospitality dropped by 5,600 and construction by 1,900, the agency said.
Marlboro County ranked fifth for unemployment in South Carolina. Its rate was 17.5 percent, an increase of 0.4 percent since December.
The top county was Allendale, with an unemployment rate of 23.4 percent.
The unemployment rate in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, was 25 percent.
Gov. Mark Sanford on Wednesday said growth in the state's labor force is to blame for the high jobless rate, though the commission's data indicated that for the first time in almost a year the labor force contracted.
"We're sixth now in the United States of America in labor force growth. And what that means in practical terms is that one can load up the family and the U-Haul in Michigan or Massachusetts or a whole host of other states, say 'There's no economic opportunity. I'm outta here. I'm headed to a state like South Carolina,'" the governor said. "You've got to look at the numbers behind the numbers in how we get to where we are."
Post a Comment
