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Mecklenburg County’s unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent in November, according to nonseasonally adjusted figures released Wednesday by the N.C. Employment Security Commission.
The unemployment rate has risen in recent months but remains lower than during the same time last year, when it was 10.1 percent.
Mecklenburg’s unemployment rate is lower than the state’s 9.5 percent unemployment rate for December, according to nonseasonally adjusted figures. It is higher than the U.S. jobless rate in December of 7.8 percent.
The city of Charlotte’s unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent from 7.9 percent the previous month.
Wells Fargo & Co. senior economist Mark Vitner said he wasn’t too worried about the increase because the data are not adjusted for seasonal trends.
“The unemployment rate rose in most areas in December, it’s a seasonal fluctuation,” Vitner said. “I don’t think there’s that much to it. The unemployment rate has been trending down; we expect a continued decline over 2013 as homebuilders gain momentum and commercial construction comes back.”
Nationally, unemployment rates were lower in December than a year earlier in 290 of the 372 metropolitan areas, higher in 68 areas, and unchanged in 14 areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.
Statewide, the unemployment rate increased in 97 counties, decreased in one and remained flat in two. Orange County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate in December at 5.9 percent, and Graham County had the highest unemployment rate at 18.5 percent.
Mecklenburg had 495,027 people in the county labor force that month, and 46,164 who were unemployed, according to the state figures.
The Charlotte-Gaston-Rock Hill metropolitan area’s unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent from 9 percent last month and is down from 10.4 percent reported in December 2011.
Here is a sampling of unemployment rates elsewhere in the Charlotte region and beyond compared with December 2011:
• Cabarrus: 8.7 percent; down 1.2 percentage points from December 2011.
• Gaston: 10.5 percent; down 0.7 points.
• Iredell: 9.7 percent, down 1.2 points.
• Union: 8.1 percent; down 0.9 points.
• Wake: 7.3 percent, down 0.7 points.
