Editor

Yadkin's unemployment rate increased for the second straight month, rising to 5.3 percent in June, according to figures released Friday by the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina.

The county's jobless rate inched up six percent from May's unemployment rate of 5 percent. A total of 1,033 county workers filed claims last month for unemployment insurance benefits from a total workforce of 19,474 individuals.

Unemployment rates increased in neighboring counties. Surry and Wilkes counties both reported jobless rates in excess of 7 percent. Davie County's unemployment rate rose to 5.9 percent with Forsyth County reporting a June unemployment rate of 6 percent. Stokes County's jobless rate rose from 5.6 to 5.8 percent.

Yadkin was one of 82 of the state's 100 counties that reported unemployment rate increases in June.

“The effect of the national economy is being felt in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties,” ESC Chairman Harry E. Payne Jr. said in a prepared statement. "Even during the busy summer months, it appears employers have reduced hiring, making it a much tighter job market.”

The latest unemployment figures come at a time when the state is considering closing the Yadkinville office, in addition to several others across the state, as part of a cost-savings consolidation effort.

Earlier this month, the ESC reported that the state's unemployment rate in June rose to 6 percent — the highest rate since December 2003.

For more on this developing story, go to www.yadkinripple.com, or pick up a copy of Thursday's print edition of The Yadkin Ripple.