Wake unemployment: April rate during pandemic highest in decades
Wake County’s unemployment rate jumped to 11% in April — more than 59,000 Wake residents —according to new data from the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Durham County had a rate of 9.9%, and Orange County 8.2%. Every N.C. county saw an increase in unemployment.
This stark change came after the coronavirus pandemic prompted stay-at-home orders that shut down many businesses across the state and country. April was the first full month that the orders were in effect.
It is the highest rate of jobless that Wake County has seen in at least 30 years.
The Wake unemployment rate from March to April increased by nearly eight percentage points, after a steady decline since early 2010 when the rate was 9%.
In December 2019, Wake’s unemployment rate was as low as 2.8%.
However, despite the spike in unemployment, recent data suggested that Wake County renters are still paying their rent on time. In the first week of May, data from RealPage’s rent payment tracker showed more than 86% of Raleigh and Durham metro renters paid their rent.
The state’s unemployment rate increased to 12.5% in April — more than 585,000 people.
In late May, Gov. Roy Cooper announced the head of the Department of Employment Security, Lockhart Taylor, would be moving to a different job in state government and named Pryor Gibson the department’s new head.
This change came after many people complained about waiting two months to get their unemployment benefits, even though state officials say the process in uncomplicated cases shouldn’t take more than 14 days, The News & Observer previously reported.
“Unless we focus more state and federal assistance on people bearing the brunt of this storm, we’re going to see a replay of the Great Recession when a lot of people of color, people working for the worst wages, and rural communities never recovered,” Patrick McHugh, research manager with the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center, said in a press release Wednesday.
Wake is one of 77 North Carolina counties that had an unemployment rate of 10% or higher in April.
In March, there was only one.
“COVID-19 brought a cruel shock to our economy and the county unemployment rates we published today reflect what we already knew: People are hurting,” wrote David Rhoades, spokesperson from the Department of Commerce, in an email to The N&O. “Our team is working hard to bring unemployment payments to people who have lost a steady paycheck, and we continue to work with companies who even this week have announced business expansions.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 2:08 PM.
