Triad jobs hard to find

It was the same story, different month, for Triad job-hunters during November.

The unemployment rate didn't get any worse, remaining unchanged at 11.1 percent, the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported yesterday.

But the rate also remained in double digits for the 11th consecutive month.

"Job losses in North Carolina appear to have bottomed out in July, but few improvements have occurred since then," said John Quinterno, a principal at South by North Strategies Ltd., a research company that focuses on economic and social policy.

"Local labor markets are just drifting along the bottom of the recession," Quinterno said.

The jobless rate in the Winston-Salem metropolitan statistical area was unchanged in November at 9.8 percent despite an overall loss of at least 600 jobs, primarily in professional and business services. The area consists of Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties.

Forsyth's rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 9.7 percent.

The increase, however, doesn't reflect the first 400 job cuts at the Dell Inc. assembly plant in Winston-Salem. Those cuts came shortly after the commission collected its labor-force data for November. The plant is scheduled to close in mid-April,with another 505 jobs affected.

"Although I do not believe we have seen the worst, it may be an indication the bottom may not be as deep as once estimated," said Archie Hicks, the manager of the commission's office in Winston-Salem.

Despite the stagnant job market, there were two pieces of good news announced yesterday.

The commission said it has started paying the latest federal extension of unemployment benefits that were approved by Congress in November.

The $24 billion economic-stimulus bill provides another 14 weeks of benefits to all out-of-work people -- estimated by the state as about 70,000 -- who have exhausted their benefits; The state estimates their numbers to be about 70,000 .

"With the recently passed extensions, I do expect more people to enter the labor force who may have given up their search," Hicks said. "However, until we can see appreciable gains in people entering the work force and finding suitable employment, we are liable to see continued high rates of unemployment." The N.C. Department of Insurance said that the federal subsidy program for COBRA health coverage has been extended for six more months for some North Carolinians. The subsidy, which pays for 65 percent of the cost of coverage, had been allowed to expire last Friday.

The time frame for the COBRA extension could make absorbing bad employment news a little easier in the next two months since it affects workers involuntarily let go between Sept. 1, 2008, and Feb. 28, 2010.

"Many citizens in our state were approaching the subsidy's original cutoff date and just didn't know how they could pay for the full coverage premiums -- or worse, they were forced to cancel their coverage once the subsidy ran out," said Wayne Goodwin, the state's insurance commissioner.

Workers who are eligible for the stimulus-related benefits will be notified by their former employer's group health-insurance provider. Consumers who have specific questions about COBRA subsidies and enrollment periods can call 866-444-3272, or visit www.dol.gov/cobra.

Economists and employment officials have said for months that any incremental declines in the Triad jobless rate have had more to do with people dropping out of the work force -- who are then not counted by the commission as unemployed -- than from significant job creation.

Some economists have said that if the underemployed -- those working in jobs below their skill level for the sake of earning a paycheck, the stay-at-home parent, the retiree and the discouraged -- are factored into the jobless rate, it could be as much as 2.5 percentage points higher.

"A diminishing labor force is not indicative of a healthy economy," Hicks said.

rcraver@wsjournal.com


727-7376

Mixed results

The November unemployment rate declined in half of the 14 counties in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina.
County November 2008 October 2009* November 2009

Alamance 8.5 percent 11.8 percent 11.9 percent

Alleghany 9.1 percent 10.8 percent 11.6 percent

Ashe 8.4 percent 11.7 percent 11.6 percent

Davidson 9.3 percent 13.1 percent 13 percent

Davie 8 percent 11.3 percent 10.8 percent

Forsyth 7.1 percent 9.6 percent 9.7 percent

Guilford 7.7 percent 11.2 percent 11 percent

Randolph 8.3 percent 11.2 percent 11.4 percent

Rockingham 9.7 percent 11.7 percent 12.1 percent

Stokes 7.5 percent 10.3 percent 10.2 percent

Surry 9.2 percent 12.4 percent 12.2 percent

Watauga 5.1 percent 7 percent 7.4 percent

Wilkes 8.8 percent 13.4 percent 13.1 percent

Yadkin 7.2 percent 9.4 percent 9.6 percent