North Carolina set a new troubling record when it comes to unemployment. State unemployment in January hit 11.1 percent.
That's up from December’s 10.9 percent.
Record high unemployment became the norm starting in February of last year. Tat's when the old record from 1983 of 9.7 fell.
Unemployment increased by 8,300 workers in January. More than 500,000 people in the state are out of work.
Those numbers illustrate that finding a job in this economy remains a tremendous challenge.
Economists say jobs are the last thing to come back when pulling out of a recession. That leaves thousands of people looking for work wherever they can get it.
Even for recent college grads finding work is difficult.
"There are entry level positions that they're asking for 3 to 5 years of experience,” explained Curt Powell. Powell is actually one of the success stories. He graduated from ECU in 2009 and now has a part time job at PCMH.
"I’m trying to get that experience now and keep moving on with the process,” he said.
With 500,000 people out of work in North Carolina, the job market is tighter than ever.
Jamie Bond works at Nease Personnel, an employment services firm in Greenville. It's her job to find work for others and for her, business is up.
“There's a lot more candidates calling up, emailing resumes, looking for work, that kind of thing. And it makes our job a little bit tougher in the sense that we definitely have a lot more candidates to interview and screen through to find the company the person they're really looking for,” said Bond.
The number of unemployed people has increased by more than 82,000 since this time last year.
She said, “I think that with unemployment up, people seem to be a little more persistent with their search."
Bond says the majority of companies are looking to hire full time but for people like Powell, all they can do is hope their part time experience leads to full time work.
The North Carolina Justice Center says the state economy saw eight thousand new jobs created in February, but the work force grew by 15 thousand workers.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement