Local unemployment rate drops in December
Guilford County's unemployment rate dropped from 4.8 percent to 4.6 percent last month, as jobs in trade, finance, education, health and hospitality grew throughout the Greensboro-High Point area.
Guilford was one of 72 counties where unemployment rates dropped last month, according to a report released today by the Employment Security Commission. More than 232,700 people were employed in the county last month, while 11,210 people were unemployed.
The unemployment rate also declined, overall, for the Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area. December's rate was 4.9 percent, down from 5.1 percent during November. Unemployment rates improved in all of North Carolina's MSAs last month, the ESC reported.
"December wrapped up a very good year for employment in North Carolina," ESC Chairman Harry E. Payne Jr. said in a news release.
Unemployment rates improved throughout the region. Alamance County's rate fell from 5.3 percent in November to 5 percent in December, and Rockingham county saw a rate decline from 6.3 percent to 6 percent. Randolph County's rate fell from 5.1 percent to 5 percent.
Statewide, Orange and Watauga counties had the lowest unemployment rates - 3.1 percent - last month. Scotland County had the highest, at 9.3 percent.