From Carolina Journal comes analysis of economic data that refutes Leftist claims about North Carolina’s economy.
Newly released employment data show signs of growing strength in the North Carolina economy, with the second-highest reported annual increase in new jobs in the state since the onset of the Great Recession. That’s the assessment of John Locke Foundation President John Hood.
The rate of job growth has increased in North Carolina since July, when extended federal unemployment insurance benefits ended in the state.
The N.C. Employment Security Commission’s latest report lists the state’s official unemployment rate at 6.9 percent for December 2013. That’s down a full one-half of a percentage point from the 7.4 percent rate reported in November. The official state unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in December 2012.
The state rate remains 0.2 percentage points above the national rate of 6.7 percent. That’s the smallest gap between North Carolina’s rate and the national rate in more than a year.
“In the year ending in December 2013, North Carolina added 64,500 net new jobs,” Hood said. “That’s a higher number of new jobs than in all but one of the employment reports issued since North Carolina started dealing with the impact of the Great Recession.”
The December jobs report pokes holes in a key argument from left-of-center activists, who have contended that the end of extended federal unemployment insurance benefits in North Carolina would hurt the state’s employment picture.
“North Carolina has added jobs at a much faster rate in the second half of 2013 than it did in the first half of the year, when extended UI benefits were still in place,” Hood said. “That’s consistent with empirical research suggesting that extended benefits deter both creating and taking jobs. The picture for 2013 is also contrary to the pattern in 2012, when North Carolina’s job growth was somewhat stronger in the first half of the year than it was in the second half.”
