The state's job market continued to move in a positive but exceedingly slow direction during April, according to economists.
The jobless rate remained unchanged in April at 9.7 percent, with a net gain of just 2,900 nonfarm jobs, the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported Friday. The state has had a net gain of 37,000 jobs since the first of the year.
It is the seventh consecutive month the North Carolina rate has been below 10 percent, but during that time it has only dropped 0.3 percentage point.
However small, the recent improvement in the jobless rate compared with 2010 and 2009 is the primary reason why North Carolina is not part of a federal program to provide 20 weeks of extended unemployment benefits.
Since the U.S. Labor Department notification in early April, and the ensuing political tug-of-war in Raleigh over extending benefits, the commission estimates that more than 42,000 North Carolinians have exhausted their claims.
Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed a bill that would have extended the federal benefits in exchange for accepting a 13 percent cut from the spending plan she proposed as a starting point for 2011-12 budget negotiations. The cuts would have taken effect if the majority-GOP legislature didn't pass a budget by July 1.
Rep. Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, the speaker of the N.C. House, said Friday that legislation next week would reinstate benefits for those jobless up to 99 weeks. He said that Republicans are willing to compromise on their initial position.
Perdue said in a statement Friday that she is waiting for Republicans "to show leadership and stop playing games with the lives of thousands of North Carolinians. Send me a clean bill and I will sign it the same day."
Even though the jobless rate remains at its lowest level in more than two years, economists said to not expect much more improvement until the housing market improves.
Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University, said he was encouraged that more people were in the labor force looking for jobs.
"The problem is the slow pace of improvement in the job market is related to the housing market," Walden said. "Normally, the housing and construction markets are sectors leading the economy out of recession.
"With housing prices still falling and construction employment sagging, these sectors are still a negative for the economy."
The commission reported that there was a loss of 1,500 construction jobs in April.
"The economy won't get well until the housing market gets well — and that's still in the future," Walden said.
As in recent months, there was a good amount of churn in the job market during April.
The trade, transportation and utilities sector had the largest job gain at 2,700, followed by leisure and hospitality services at 2,300 and professional and business services at 2,200.
By contrast, there were losses of 2,300 government and 800 education and health services jobs.
"The job growth continues to be too modest to replace the jobs lost earlier in the cycle," said John Quinterno, a principal with South by North Strategies Ltd., a Chapel Hill research firm.
(336) 727-7376
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement