South By North Strategies, Ltd.

North Carolina’s local labor markets underwent few real changes in May, according to preliminary data released today by the Employment Security Commission. In May, 53 counties posted double-digit unemployment rates, and 21 counties recorded unemployment rates of at least 12 percent.

Last month, unemployment rates fell in 10 of the state’s metropolitan areas, and 11 metros gained more jobs than they lost. Nevertheless, five metros posted double-digit unemployment rates. The Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir area had the highest unemployment rate (13 percent) followed by Rocky Mount (12.9 percent). The lowest metro unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in Durham-Chapel Hill.

In the long term, any meaningful recovery will be driven by growth in the state’s three major metro regions: Charlotte, the Research Triangle, and the Piedmont Triad. Yet job growth in 2010 has been sluggish. Collectively, employment in these three major metro regions has fallen by 3.8 percent since the start of the recession. The overall May unemployment rate in the major metros equaled 9.5 percent. Of the three areas, the Research Triangle had the lowest May unemployment rate (8 percent), followed by the Piedmont Triad (10.4 percent) and Charlotte (11.4 percent).

Click here for South by North Strategies’ full analysis of the May report.