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North Carolina unemployment rate rises for 3rd straight month

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s unemployment rate is slowly ratcheting upward by rising slightly for the third consecutive month, according to state Commerce Department figures released on Friday.

October’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.8%, compared to 3.6% in September and 3.5% in August. Before that, the month-over-month rate hadn’t increased since April 2020. The U.S. rate also rose in October to 3.7%.

The Commerce Department said overall employment in the state for October fell by more than 10,300 jobs since September to over 4.93 million people, while the number of unemployed grew by roughly 9,950 to over 194,100.

When using another counting format based on monthly worksite surveys, the agency reported seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment grew by 8,300 to almost 4.83 million. These surveys found the leisure and hospitality services industry with the largest drop in employment from September to October, while the professional and business services sector had the largest numerical increase.

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