Triangle jobless rate inches up

The Triangle's unemployment rate rose in November, frustrating job seekers hoping for some good news in the new year.

New numbers reported Tuesday by the N.C. Employment Security Commission showed unadjusted unemployment rates that rose in 99 of the state's 100 counties.

In the Triangle, the rate rose to 8.3 percent in November from 8 percent in October, according to seasonally adjusted figures from Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte.

Despite the increase in the unemployment rate, economists stress that the figure tends to lag the economy's real-time activity. Also, the unemployment rate can go up before a recovery when out-of-work people who had given up on their job searches go back to them, initially inflating the number of people counted in the labor force.

"We're seeing the telltale signs that job growth is either picking up or getting set to," said Mark Vitner, senior economist for Wells Fargo. "But businesses, particularly small businesses, are still very cautious."

For job seekers like Shonda Hurtt, the fluctuations in the unemployment rate have ceased to mean much. If anything, many job seekers say the numbers are depressing.

The state unemployment rate for November was reported as 9.7 percent, just shy of the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent. And North Carolina lost the most jobs of any state in the country that month: 12,500.

. "What can you do? I have to believe that something will give," said Hurtt, a nurse who has been looking for a full-time job for more than a year and has been getting by with temp work.

The latest national jobs data, for December, is scheduled to be released Friday.

For now, the best news may be that we're not surrendering ground, said John Quinterno, principal for South by North Strategies, a Chapel Hill research firm specializing in economic and social policy.

"In late September 2009, we did hit sort of the bottom of the cycle," he said. "We hit the maximum point of job losses. ... We haven't resumed a downward slide. On the other hand, we really haven't generated many positions to get much above where the bottom was. We pretty much spent the year going absolutely nowhere on the jobs-creation side."

Many business owners remain hesitant

"I don't really see the fundamental dynamics changing that much, at least in the first few months of 2011," he said.

Still, there are some jobs trickling down to the folks who need them.

Tuesday, Wilson Dwayne Pulley of Raleigh found out that he finally has a job, after four years of looking.

Pulley, 46, a single dad with a 15-year-old daughter, had been unable to find work since losing his roofing job.

The job he landed, doing inventory for a retail store, is a far cry from his work experience. But Pulley said he can't be choosy at this point.

"I'm just one out of a million," he said. "[Being unemployed for so long] puts a strain on your household. It keeps you up at night."