I really cannot believe the latest state employment data for Mecklenburg County. Given the national trends — and mounting corporate profits — I thought we’d begin to see some improvement in the county’s jobless rate.
Nope.
January numbers pegged the county with 46,017 unemployed, February has that number at 46,148. The overall number of jobs in the county did tick up to 407,625 from 406,713, but the growth in the labor force matched that, leaving the unemployment rate at 10.2 percent. And here’s the kicker — unless Meck adds 3000 jobs in March, the county will be officially trailing 2010 numbers. Last year’s job total peaked, recall, with 415K jobs in May.
In any event, Mecklenburg’s pre-recession jobs peak of 443K in April 2008 sure seems a long way away.
