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Jobs in Wilmington up, N.C. unemployment down

Posted by Buddy Blake on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 4:02pm.

By Alison Lee Satake

Compared to this time last year, job openings in Wilmington are up by about 20 percent, said Dan Peninger, assistant manager of the Wilmington Employment Security Commission. Most of those jobs are in the service sector – restaurants, hotels and motels. But a few jobs with the county and UNCW were created by stimulus funding, he said.

This uptick in local jobs mirrors the state’s falling unemployment rate. For the third consecutive month the state’s unemployment rate has decreased, according to statistics released today by the state’s Employment Security Commission.

North Carolina’s unemployment rate dropped from 10.8 percent in April to 10.3 percent in May.

As of the end of April, New Hanover County’s unemployment rate was 9.2 percent. The statistic for May will be released later this month.

“We’re consistent with the state and always a point or two below the state average in Wilmington,” Peninger said. He attributes Wilmington’s lower unemployment rate to the tourism industry.

“We’ll get closer to the state average during the mid-winter months and drift farther from the state average during the tourist season,” he said.

Peninger said he’s encouraged by the slight increase of job orders from employers the ESC office on Market Street is receiving.

However it’s too early to know if it is indicative of a larger trend. “We don’t know if it’s from tourism or a signal that folks are starting to hire,” he said.

Across the state, seasonally adjusted, total non-farm industry employment rose by 12,900 jobs from the previous month to 3,917,600, according to information gathered through the ESC’s monthly survey.

The gov¬ernment sector had the largest increase in jobs in the state from April to May with the addition of 16,100 jobs.

The manufacturing sector experienced the largest decrease in the state with the loss of 2,900 jobs.

The number of (seasonally adjusted) people employed in North Carolina is 4,094,595, which is an increase of 14,722 workers. Since this time last year, the number of people unemployed has decreased by 23,678 people.