Unemployment in the Greater Hickory area was 14.4 percent in November, down slightly from 14.5 percent in October. It is the highest jobless rate among the state's 14 metropolitan statistical areas.
Jobless rates dropped in three of the region's four counties in November.
Catawba County's unemployment rate was 14 percent in November, down from 14.2 percent in October. The county's jobless rate peaked at 15.6 percent in March 2009, the highest it has been since 1975.
Hickory's unemployment rate in November was 11.8 percent, down from 12.1 percent in October. In November 2008, Hickory's jobless rate was 7.6 percent.
In November, unemployment rates increased in 60 of North Carolina's 100 counties, decreased in 31 counties and remained the same in nine, according to statistics released Tuesday by the N.C. Employment Security Commission.
Among the state's 14 metropolitan statistical areas, Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton ranked No. 1 in joblessness for the 11th consecutive month.
Orange County had the state's lowest unemployment rate in November, at 6.3 percent. Edgecombe County had the highest jobless rate, at 16.6 percent.
Statewide, the unemployment rate was 10.7 percent in November, up from 10.6 percent in October.
The national jobless rate was 10 percent in November, down from 10.2 percent in October.
Moses Carey Jr., N.C. Employment Security Commission chairman, said action by the commission last week provided millions of dollars in benefits under the U.S. Department of Labor's latest extension of unemployment benefits.
"We continue to assist job seekers and those customers looking to apply for unemployment insurance," Carey said.
"Help has arrived in the form of another extension of benefits, and we have begun paying out those funds to eligible participants."
Allan Mackie, manager of the N.C. Employment Security Commission office here, said the extension will be helpful to the many local unemployed people who have exhausted their benefits in an extremely tough job market.
The N.C. Employment Security Commission said 9,700 more people in the Greater Hickory Metro were unemployed in November 2009 than in November 2008. About 5,800 of those people had been employed in manufacturing.
About 29 percent of the Hickory region's jobs are in manufacturing, compared to a national average of 10 percent.
Mackie said positive sales reports from the fall High Point Furniture Market, coupled with successful efforts to diversify the region's employment base, provide reasons to hope jobless rates will continue to decline.
He noted that Fiserv, a Fortune 500 company that is opening a customer care center in Hickory's McDonald Crossings Business Park, will start hiring in earnest this month and in February.
The Wisconsin-based provider of online bill-paying and online banking services plans to hire more than 419 people during the next three years.
"It's a tough job market, no question about it," Mackie said.
"But there are some encouraging signs."
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