NC agency says Jan. jobless rate hit 9.7 percent

RALEIGH -- North Carolina's unemployment jumped in January to the highest rate in more than a quarter century, hitting 9.7 percent. North Carolina's Employment Security Commission said Wednesday the state's jobless rate hit the highest level since March 1983, when the country was mired in a serious recession. North Carolina's highest recorded jobless rate was 10.2 percent in February 1983. Official records go back only to 1976. The January unemployment rate jumped from 8.7 percent in December. North Carolina shed jobs along with the rest of the country in January, when the national unemployment rate was 7.6 percent. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)