Unemployment

The jobless rate has been slowly dropping since late last year.

A General Assembly staff economist wrote last week that state employment had returned to pre-pandemic levels last summer and had exceeded them.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point last month to 3.5 percent.

North Carolina's unemployment rate has now declined every month for the past year, with September's jobless figure falling to 4.2%, the state Commerce Department announced Friday.

Advocates for North Carolina workers say the unemployed need higher and longer jobless benefits from the state more than ever now that additional federal benefits created for the COVID-19 pandemic have expired.

Republicans in charge of the North Carolina General Assembly have agreed to legislation ending the $300 federal weekly supplemental benefit to the unemployed in the state.

The North Carolina House has OK'd legislation to do away with the $300-per-week supplemental benefits for the unemployed provided by the federal government during the pandemic. The Republican measure approved on Thursday would take away the additional payments to roughly 245,000 people in North Carolina. The program is set to expire nationwide in early September, but about two dozen states already have decided to cut off the supplement early. GOP legislators say the additional aid is a disincentive for working, making it tough for employers to fill vacancies. Democrats say eliminating the benefits would harm people still struggling to cover their expenses.

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President Trump signed four executive actions to provide economic relief amid the coronavirus pandemic. They amount to a stopgap measure after not reaching a deal with Congress.

In 2013, North Carolina’s legislature voted to cut unemployment benefits, shortening the number of eligibility weeks and capping the amount of funds…