NC unemployment rate dropped 5 points in June, but is still almost double a year ago

North Carolina’s unemployment rate dropped from 12.7% in May to 7.6% in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

While that was the sixth-largest drop in the country, the rate is still almost double the June 2019 rate of 4%.

North Carolina added 173,000 jobs from May to June, according to the BLS data, but the state still has 340,400 fewer jobs than it did in June 2019.

David Rhoades, communications director at the N.C. Department of Commerce, said the BLS report was encouraging.

“It shows the resiliency of the North Carolina economy,” Rhoades said.

But North Carolina will still see economic effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, as the state moves forward with recovery.

“We are in unprecedented times,” Rhoades said. “There are lots of issues to understand as we move forward.”

North Carolina’s unemployment rate, like the rest of the country, skyrocketed in March as businesses were ordered to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That led to more than a million people applying for unemployment benefits in the state.

Some of those jobs have returned as Gov. Roy Cooper eased some of the initial restrictions, but with North Carolina experiencing a surge of new coronavirus cases and record numbers of people hospitalized, the governor has extended Phase 2 of his reopening plan for three weeks, until at least Aug. 7.

Two states that saw unemployment drops larger than North Carolina’s had significant lower populations and economies that rely heavily on the tourism industry, which was devastated by the pandemic. Nevada led the country with a 10.3 percentage point drop as casinos reopened, followed by Hawaii with a 9.6 percentage point drop. But both of those states still had among the highest unemployment rates in the country.

The unemployment rate for the entire U.S. was 11.1% in June, BLS reported.

This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 2:04 PM.