Greensboro News Record repeats big lie, Unemployment rate Greensboro High Point metro, John Quinterno reality check, We’ll probably never catch up to where we were, Citizen Wells facts

The April unemployment rate for the region was 5.3 percent — down nearly one percentage point from 6.2 percent in April 2014.

And the best news is that nearly 12,000 more people had jobs this April than a year ago.

In fact, the past 16 months have been a breakout period of sorts for the area, when the number of employed people rose and the number of unemployed dropped.

“Sometimes we’ve seen periods where the unemployment rate is falling because people are leaving the labor force, but this is a real pickup from a year ago and it shows real improvement,” said Andrew Brod, a senior research fellow for UNC-Greensboro’s Center for Business and Economic Research.

According to state data for April, 19,538 people were unemployed in the Greensboro-High Point metro area, which covers Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties.

Last month, it was 20,062 people.

In April 2014, there were 22,178 unemployed.

“I think what we’re seeing here is the economy in the (Greensboro-High Point metro) over the last month … it’s not hurting but there’s no dramatic improvement,” Brod said. “But if you look at it over the last year, you see a clear improvement.”

Still, a North Carolina economic and social policy consultant said that over the years Greensboro-High Point has not truly recovered from the recession.

John Quinterno of Chapel Hill-based South by North Strategies said that “if you look long term … the picture is less comforting. If you compare April 2015 to April 2008, you will see that the metro unemployment rate still is higher than it was seven years ago.””

“We’ll probably in some sense never catch up to where we were,”

Read more:

http://www.greensboro.com/business/an-increase-in-triad-jobs-pushes-unemployment-down/article_a9dcf4ca-0a64-11e5-bfc4-9bef70131f66.html

From Triad City Beat June 3, 2015.

“News & Record lays off nine employees”

Jeff Gauger,  publisher and editor of the News & Record, confirmed today that the daily paper eliminated nine full-time positions.

The positions, which were in the news, advertising and administration, were cut on June 3 “due to continuing softness in national advertising,” Gauger said, adding that the nine employees “were released with severance.” He did not provide further details about which positions were cut or which employees were laid off.

Read more:

http://triad-city-beat.com/news-record-lays-off-nine-employees/

Once again, the stated unemployment rate is a big lie.

The NC State website does not provide the participation rate by metro area but it does for the state.

In January 2009, when Obama took office, the participation rate was 65.2 percent.

In April 2015, the rate was 61.1 percent.

That is a plummet of 4.1 percent and accounts for much of the drop in the unemployment rate.

In the metro area there were 350,184 people employed in April 2008.

In April 2015 there were 348,297 people employed.

That is a drop of 1,887 employed!

In an area that has grown in population!

And of any so called jobs added, we do not know how many are part time or low paying.

But we do know this.

From Citizen Wells April 24, 2015.

“Another poll has ranked the Greensboro-High Point metropolitan area as among the hungriest in the country.

Only this time, the Gallup poll commissioned by the Food Research and Action Center in 2014 ranks the area No. 1 for people who had difficulties securing food, based on a percentage of the total population.