The Triad's jobless rate dropped in October to 9.8 percent from 10.2 percent in September, the N.C. Division of Employment Security reported Thursday.
For Forsyth County, the rate fell to 8.9 percent from 9.6 percent.
And the jobless rate for the Winston-Salem metropolitan statistical area dropped to 9.2 percent from 9.5 in September. The MSA consists of Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties.
Statewide, rates decreased in 83 counties, increased in 12 and remained the same in five.
"October data showed a decrease in all of the state's metropolitan areas," said Lynn R. Holmes, the assistant secretary for the N.C. Division of Employment Security. "While unemployment rates dropped in most of the counties, there are counties with rates that are higher than 10 percent.
"We continue to work with our workforce partners in assisting our customers in job search assistance in our DES offices and JobLink Career Centers across the state."
The division listed 781,710 people as employed in the Triad and 76,931 as unemployed.
The number of people employed in the state increased slightly in October to 4,070,801. The number of people unemployed in October fell by 17,212 to 436,615.
When people who are unemployed stop looking for work, the division does not count them as jobless, which can lower the unemployment rate.
Larry Parker, a spokesman for the N.C. Division of Employment Security, said some of the rate drops in the metropolitan statistical areas could be due to holiday hiring.
"Certainly, we'll be looking forward to the November numbers to find out if holiday hiring really is on the rise," he said.
John Quinterno, a principal with South by North Strategies Ltd., a research firm specializing in economic and social policy, noted that unemployment rates rose across most of North Carolina in the past year.
"In 53 counties, at least 10 percent of the labor force was unemployed in October, up from 44 counties a year ago," Quinterno said. "Similarly, the size of the labor force fell in 36 counties, which indicates that joblessness is more widespread than captured in the official unemployment measure."
He said that since the recession started in December 2007, North Carolina has seen its unemployment rate climb from 4.7 to 9.7 percent.
Quinterno expects long-term recovery will depend on growth in the state's major regions: Charlotte, the Research Triangle and the Piedmont Triad.
"North Carolina's local labor markets recorded few meaningful improvements over the past year," he said. "Statewide job growth has been anemic at best and, as a result, unemployment rates actually have risen across much of the state."
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