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March 18, 2024

Alexander tied for third lowest unemployment in NC

Alexander County tied for third lowest unemployment rate in North Carolina for January 2023, according to information released by the N.C. Dept. of Commerce on Friday, March 17.

The unemployment rate in Alexander was 3.2 percent in January. (State data showed 18,119 people in the civilian labor force and 582 unemployed.) This was up from 2.8 percent in December but a tick less than the 3.3 percent of January a year ago.

In the region, Caldwell’s January rate was 3.4 percent; Catawba, 3.4 percent; Iredell, 3.5 percent; and Wilkes, 3.7 percent. The Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metro area rate was 3.4 percent. The North Wilkesboro micropolitan area unemployment rate was 3.7 percent.

Unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) increased in 99 of North Carolina’s counties in January 2023 and decreased in one. Hyde County had the highest unemployment rate at 10.1 percent while Greene, Buncombe, and Orange Counties each had the lowest at 3.0 percent.

The January not seasonally adjusted statewide rate was 3.7 percent unemployed, up from 3.2 percent in December but lower than the 3.9 percent of a year earlier.

Employed persons are defined by the Dept. of Commerce as those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as bad weather, labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation.

Unemployed persons are defined as those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on lay-off expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed.

The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

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