North Carolina’s official unemployment rate dropped again in August to 4.6 percent. That compares to a 4.7 percent rate for July. The new rate is 0.3 percentage points lower than the national rate of 4.9 percent.

The 4.6 percent rate is also 1.1 percentage points lower than the 5.7 percent rate reported in August 2015. The month-to-month change in employment is down by about 12,000, while the year-to-year change amounts to an increase of more than 96,000 jobs. The number of people officially listed as unemployed dropped by about 3,800 over the month. Over the past year, the number of unemployed workers dropped by more than 49,000.