NC unemployment at 11.1%; 4000 government jobs cut in May

[patriotvoice]

http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-story-unemloyment-090619,0,6011979.story

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina's unemployment rate climbed to 11.1 percent in May -- hitting a new peak since the state started such measurements more than three decades ago, the state Employment Security Commission said Friday.

The number of unemployed North Carolinians topped 500,000 -- an all-time high. The state's jobless rate a year ago was 5.9 percent.

[dweller]

1. might as well post in LBN too

there have been several there today.

dp

[zazen]

2. know where we can find NC's U-6?

I'm not surprised. My next door neighbor's a lifetimer at IBM and worried about being fired; his daughter is finishing an engineering degree; and her recently graduated engineer boyfriend just got a job as a bagger at a grocery store, which was a step up from the landscaping he was doing (and this is from a good university.) We know so many professionals with supposedly stable careers who are losing everything.

I'd think real un and underemployment in NC is at 20%, easily. So many contractors here (like myself) who have no safety net. One month I have a contract and don't fit in the U-6, the next I'm wondering if I'm going to qualify for food stamps.

[patriotvoice]

3. I do not; perhaps buried on the inscrutable NC ESC site?

A quick google didn't turn up anything relevant.

[zazen]

5. I couldn't find it either; it'd have to be at least 18%, right? n/t

[patriotvoice]

6. I could be persuaded to tick it up a tad higher, owing to all the IT contractors in NC. EOM

[patriotvoice]

4. "North Carolina has one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States."

From the May Triad Business Journal:
http://triad.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2009/05/18/daily47.html?ed=2009-05-22&ana=e_du_pub