NC jobless rate stayed stuck at 11 percent in July

RALEIGH — Jobless workers in North Carolina gained no ground in July as they struggled against a statewide unemployment rate that stayed flat at 11 percent.

The state’s Employment Security Commission on Friday reported that July’s unemployment rate stayed unchanged from June. July marks a sixth consecutive month the state’s jobless rate hovered above the previous historic high.

The national picture isn’t much better. The U.S. unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in July, down a tenth of a percentage point from a 26-year high.

Most economists predict that Americans are in for a long struggle as they try to get back to work. Some forecasts don’t have the U.S. unemployment rate getting back to “normal” levels of
around 5 percent until 2014.

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