The number of people employed in North Carolina was essentially flat in the 12 months ending in February, according to the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina. But the seasonally adjusted drop of 76 workers helped make the state unemployment rate 5 percent in February for the first time since December 2005, the ESC said.
The threshold is an important one because economists consider anything under 5 percent to be "full employment."
Seasonally adjusted North Carolina unemployment was at 4.9 percent in January and 4.5 percent in February 2007. U.S. unemployment was at 4.8 percent in February.
ESC's figures suggest an uptick in unemployment activity over the past few months. Revised numbers show that the seasonally adjusted N.C. unemployment rate was 4.7 percent from June 2007 to December 2007, but the figure has increased in each of the past two months.
More people have given up looking for work as well. North Carolina's seasonally adjusted "labor force participation rate," or the percentage of people who are either employed or actively looking for work, dropped 0.3 percentage points from January to 64.9 percent.
ESC will release county unemployment rates for February on April 2.

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