Linda Curtis of Rural Hall is just about ready to switch job fields if she doesn't find work soon.
Curtis said she has been looking for work for about a year since being laid off from a technical-support job with Ajilon, a computer-consulting company in Durham.
She has primarily sent resumes to companies using the Internet.
"A lot of times you just get the computer-generated notes that they've received your resume or they've received your online application," Curtis said yesterday after attending at job fair on West Fifth Street sponsored by the Winston-Salem Urban League and Home Depot. "I've only had two interviews over the whole year."
Curtis moved to Rural Hall with her 3-year-old daughter last month to be near family, after living in the Raleigh area for 15 years. She said she hopes that the move will provide more networking opportunities.
The job fair drew 700 people, and was the culmination of a weeklong program intended to get more people ready for the work force.
Whether there will be jobs for them remains uncertain.
The N.C. Employment Security Commission reported yesterday that the state's unemployment rate dipped slightly last month, from 10.9 percent in July to 10.8 percent in August.
It was the seventh straight month that the figure has been higher than 10 percent, peaking at 11.1 percent in May.
The decrease was part of a small decline in the statewide labor force, according to the commission's chairman, Moses Carey Jr.
"Much like the previous months, we have not experienced a lot of change in the labor force one way or another," Carey said in a news release. "These slight changes have resulted in slight decreases throughout the past few months. However, we are still dealing with high unemployment."
Unemployment decreased by 6,534 workers, to 488,974. Since this time last year, unemployment has increased by 189,252 people. The state jobless rate in August 2008 was 6.6 percent.
Michael Walden, an economist at N.C. State University in Raleigh, said that the slight rate decrease is deceptive because North Carolina lost 8,330 jobs.
"If you looked at the rate, you might think that the labor market is improving, things are getting better, but we actually lost more jobs," Walden said.
He said that there are more unemployed people in the state who are not being picked up by the unemployment numbers based on federal rules.
The labor force is the number of people employed and the number of people unemployed, he said, but when someone without a job stops looking for work, they effectively drop out of the labor force and are not counted in the jobless numbers.
Last month, the state's government industry had the largest month-over-month gain in jobs. There was a gain of 20,100 jobs in government and 1,500 in construction. Sectors that declined include trade, transportation and utilities, 4,400 jobs; manufacturing, 4,100; leisure and hospitality services, 2,200; and professional and business services, 1,200.
The job fair at the Urban League building downtown attracted 36 companies, including Time Warner Cable, Forsyth County, Truliant Federal Credit Union and Home Depot.
Home Depot has 35 positions available at its stores from Burlington to Winston-Salem.
Paul Kaplan, a district manager for the retailer, said he saw a lot of people at the fair looking for work in such fields as information technology and banking.
Alvin Borders, the director of employment for the local Urban League, said he was encouraged by what he's been hearing from local employers.
"I've talked to a number of employers that couldn't be here, but they are real close to hiring," Borders said.
Walden said he expects the state's unemployment situation to be in much better shape in a year.
"I think we'll be having increases in jobs each month, but we'll still have an elevated unemployment rate," he said. "I think it will take two years or longer to get our state unemployment rate down to where we would think that's reasonable, a 4 percent or 5 percent level."
fdaniel@wsjournal.com
727-7366
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement