The Charlotte area's jobless rate fell slightly in October from the month before, new data released Thursday show, although the rate remains in the double digits and above the state average.

The metropolitan region's unemployment rate was 10.2 percent, down from 10.7 percent in September, according to figures from the N.C. Department of Commerce's Division of Employment Security. That's down from a year ago, too, when the jobless rate was 10.5 percent.

Mecklenburg saw a similar decline. Its unemployment rate fell to 10 percent in October, down from 10.4 percent the month before and 10.1 percent in October 2010.

Statewide, unemployment rates decreased in 83 of North Carolina's 100 counties and in all 14 major metropolitan areas in October from September. Jobless rates increased in a dozen counties and remained flat in five.

Yet "while unemployment rates dropped in most of the counties, there are counties with rates that are higher than 10 percent," DES Assistant Secretary Lynn Holmes said in a news release. "We continue to work with our workforce partners in assisting our customers."

Despite the improvement, jobless rates rose in most N.C. counties and metro areas year over year - and the picture remained especially grim in the state's rural areas, said John Quinterno of South by North Strategies, a Chapel Hill-based economic research firm.

"North Carolina's local labor markets recorded few meaningful improvements over the past year," he said. "Statewide job growth has been anemic, at best, and as a result, unemployment rates have actually risen across much of the state."

In the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill area in October, the jobless rate remained above the state average of 9.7 percent. The region's unemployment rate has been in double digits for nearly three years - well above its pre-recession level - below 5 percent.

Leisure and hospitality, mining and construction and financial activities posted the Charlotte area's biggest losses in October, shedding 4,000 jobs. The biggest gains came from the education and health services and professional and business services sectors, the DES found.

"Labor market indicators continue to move in the wrong direction," Quinterno said. "2011 likely will fail to deliver any real improvements to North Carolina's local job markets or relief for the state's unemployed residents."

Government officials calculate the unemployment rate using a survey of U.S. households. The numbers don't count workers who are underemployed or who become discouraged and stop looking for jobs.