After months of gradually rising toward the 14 percent mark, the unemployment rate for Surry County has finally dropped

The state’s Employment Security Commission released a report last week showing that the unemployment rate in the county dropped by 1.2 percentage points, from 13.6 in February to 12.4 percent in March. This brings the county’s jobless rate closer to December’s percentage of 12.3 percent, which then rose to 13.2 percent in January.

Surry County’s drop followed a statewide trend, as all 100 counties saw a drop in the jobless rate. State employment is down by almost one percentage point, from 11.8 to 10.9 percent.

“I don’t think I was expecting quite as large a drop,” said Bobbi Wessling, manager of the Employment Security Commission and Surry County JobLink office in Mount Airy.

Still, Wessling said, “It certainly doesn’t mean that the economy has turned around 100 percent.”

Wessling said she was expecting a bit of a drop, because some people’s unemployment benefits have run out and they are no longer seeking work. They are not included in the percentage of those unemployed.

Last month Wessling said, “There are people who have just given up ... It (the actual jobless rate) probably is a significantly higher number.”

She did say that the rate had probably also gone down because of increased numbers of people going back to work.

“We’re seeing some uptick in some job orders. It’s nothing massive, but it is a good trend,” Wessling remarked.

She also pointed out that there had not been any major layoffs in March.

“So you’ve got a combination of things,” she said.

Wessling said the Employment Security Commission and JobLink office in Mount Airy is continuing to work with companies like Central States Manufacturing and Harvest Time Bread Company to hire new employees. The office is also working with neighboring companies to find jobs with a reasonable commute for Surry County residents.

“We’ve got a lot of economic development interest out there,” said Wessling. “We’re all very active.”

Todd Tucker, president of Surry County’s Economic Development Partnership, said, “The unemployment rate is volatile. I think it will settle a little lower going into the summer.”

He said last month that he didn’t anticipate any large layoffs in the county this year. Tucker then said the EDP was working on a few new projects. The partnership has a few initial meetings with companies set up this month.

“We continue to get a lot of requests for information ... That’s good for us, because we need numbers and people coming through,” Tucker remarked.

Counties surrounding Surry County now have unemployment rates ranging from close to 10 percent to near 14 percent. Alleghany, at 13.5 percent, and Wilkes, at 13.7 percent, have the highest rates of the counties surrounding Surry. Stokes has 11.1 percent unemployment, Forsyth has 9.8 percent, and Yadkin has 10.7 percent. Of those counties, Alleghany and Stokes saw the biggest drop in unemployment from February to March, both dropping by 1.7 percentage points.

“News that all North Carolina counties experienced a decrease in the local unemployment rate is certainly welcome, but we still have challenges ahead of us,” said ESC Chairman Lynn R. Holmes in a press release.

Contact Meghann Evans at mevans@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.