6/28/11-Unemployment Rate Falls Slightly in Rutherford County
FOREST CITY — Unemployment rates decreased in just under half of the state’s 100 counties in May, including Rutherford. Rates decreased in 40 counties, increased in 44 counties and remained the same in 16 counties.
Rutherford’s rate was 13.6 percent, down 0.1 percent from April but still ranking fourth highest for unemployment in the state. Scotland is highest at 16.2 percent; Edgecombe County,14.4 percent and Graham 14.2 percent. Currituck County had the state’s lowest employment rate in May at 5.6 percent.
A year ago, unemployment in Rutherford County was 14.8 percent. In May 2009, the rate was 15.4 percent. The jobless rate is also the lowest since December 2008, when Rutherford’s rate was 12.8 percent.
According to the North Carolina Employment Security Commission, 25,640 people are in the labor force with 22,155 employed and 3,485 still looking for work in Rutherford County.
“The trend since 2009 has been gradually going down,” said Tom Johnson, executive director of the Rutherford County Economic Development Commission. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do and are working every day, very hard to bring jobs into the community.”
At the Employment Security Commission office in Forest City, Manager Sandra Miller Camp said there were at least 88 job orders at the office and possibly more, as some orders included requests for more than one job.
“We are seeing listings for seasonal jobs such as in Lake Lure and Lowe’s needing help in the home and garden section.
“There are openings with Shaw and Duke Energy and we’ve seen some manufacturing jobs, one or two openings, here and there.”
There are also ongoing openings at some nursing facilities, Miller said.
The jobless rate for May “is an improvement. Any decrease is an improvement and we hope this summer we’ll pick up more jobs.”
The ESC office is on Trade Street in Forest City.
“Seasonal hiring has begun to increase in some areas of North Carolina,” ESC Chairman Lynn R. Holmes said in a news release. “We experienced growth in several of our industrial sectors last month and over the year. We continued to focus on growing jobs and working with our economic, education and workforce development partners. Our offices remain committed to assisting job seekers and employers.”
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