Joblessness in Greensboro and the rest of North Carolina

The economic situation in Greensboro and the rest of North Carolina is deteriorating quickly. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in Greensboro reached 8.1 percent in November, up more than a full percent from the month before and up more than three percent from a year earlier.

The figures are only slightly worse than for all of North Carolina, which had an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent in November. All major metropolitan areas in the state are seeing substantial unemployment increases. Especially hard hit are the cities of Hickory and Rocky Mount, where unemployment rates have now reached the double digits.

Unemployment rates in North Carolina and selected cities

Area	Nov. 2007	Oct. 2008	Nov. 2008
North Carolina	4.6	6.8	7.8
Burlington	4.8	7.3	8.5
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord	4.8	7.2	8.1
Durham	3.7	5.1	5.8
Hickory-Lenoir-Morgantown	5.7	8.5	10.2
Greensboro-High Point	4.8	7.0	8.1
Raleigh-Cary	3.5	5.3	6.1
Rocky Mount	6.0	9.7	10.9
Winston-Salem	4.4	6.5	7.2

Private surveys and jobless claims indicate that the situation will look even worse when the December figures are available.