January jobless rate hit 12.2%

Dawna Compton knows that she is in a big Triad employment pond that just seems to get deeper and colder every month.

She is far from alone.

The N.C. Employment Security Commission reported yesterday that the Triad's jobless rate surged to at least a 41-year high of 12.2 percent in January. The rate was 11.3 percent in December. The commission said that unemployment rates before 1976 were not seasonally adjusted, so they are not comparable to data published since then.

The rate in Forsyth County jumped to 10.6 percent from 9.9 percent in December.

The increase among the 14 counties in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina ranged from 0.6 percentage points in Guilford County, bringing its rate to 11.8 percent, to 2.8 percentage points in Ashe County, where the rate has hit 15.1 percent.

Compton says she has been out of work since November 2008 since being let go in a mass layoff at American Express in Greensboro. She said she sends up to five resumes out every weekday, primarily online, hoping that some company or agency will inquire about her skills as a human-resources official.

Economists say that more employers are relying on online applications to reduce paperwork and weed out unqualified candidates.

"I could wallpaper a small room with the resumes I've sent out," Compton said while waiting in line at the commission's Winston-Salem office for an update on her benefits.

"I've probably gotten a response about 50 percent of the time, and a lot of those are just an auto e-mail. In terms of actually getting to talk with someone, it's been less than 10 percent."

Compton said she understands that the competition is tough for jobs in her field, which is why she has gone back to school.

"I have a child who's depending on me, so there's no option about stopping my search," Compton said. "If I do, we won't make it."

The sharp increase can be attributed to three things, economists say:

• More people re-entered the work force in January, thus being counted again as unemployed.

• There's the cumulative effect of recent major job cuts piling up as former employees at Dell Inc., Douglas Battery Manufacturing Co., GMAC Insurance, Hanesbrands Inc., Jostens Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. are filing for unemployment benefits as their severance packages run out.

• There is also the annual recalculation of how the commission measures employment data. The benchmarking is required to meet federal guidelines. The recalculation can lead to an upward or downward revision of the monthly jobless rates for the previous year.

The increase in the rates was not unexpected, said Archie Hicks, the manager of the employment commission's office in Winston-Salem. The commission has been serving about 315 people a day through March 12, compared with 238 a day for all of February.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Winston-Salem metropolitan statistical area had a loss of 100 jobs from December to January based on seasonally adjusted data. The MSA consists of Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties.

However, according to nonseasonally adjusted data from the commission, the number of residents considered as unemployed rose by 2,302 even though only 434 entered the work force.

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.

Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University in Raleigh, said that there is reason to be a little optimistic about the statewide job market.

"In January, jobs increased in both surveys -- household, industry -- the first time this has happened since the recession began over two years ago," Walden said.

"We will likely see this situation -- increased jobs along with a higher unemployment rate -- play out over the next couple of months, both statewide and locally," he said. "As long as jobs are increasing, the job situation is getting better."

Amid the gloomy jobs forecast, Pine Hall Brick Co. offered a piece of promising news yesterday.

It has recalled 80 employees to its plant in Madison because of increasing demand for its clay-brick products. The employees had been furloughed, spokesman Marc Barnes said.

"All of our North Carolina plants have resumed production," Barnes said. "When market conditions are right, there will be more demand and therefore more need for employees."

However, Jerry Willis is getting more discouraged about demand for employees picking up anytime soon.

Willis said he feels fortunate that he is qualified for a fourth tier of unemployment benefits, which was recently approved by Congress. He said that his job was eliminated in early 2009 when the supplier company he worked for lost its contract with Dell.

"At least that'll help me, my wife and our son for another few weeks," Willis said.

"I've been unemployed before, but never like this and never for this long. It just seems I can't get high enough up on the application list to get a call."

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