The economic news is mixed. According to personal finance website WalletHub, North Carolina is struggling to recover from new unemployment claims, with last week’s claims higher than at the start of 2020 and up by 45.77% compared to the same week in 2019. That, they say, was the 3rd biggest increase in the US. But WalletHub also reports that weekly unemployment claims in North Carolina decreased by 43.70% compared to the same week last year. That, they say, was the 4th smallest decrease in the US.

Meanwhile, the NC Dept. of Commerce reported this week that unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) decreased in 83 of North Carolina’s 100 counties in October, increased in eight, and remained unchanged in nine. Scotland County had the highest unemployment rate at 7.8 percent while Orange County had the lowest at 2.6 percent. Lincoln County had the 9th lowest unemployment rate in the state--just 3.0%. Catawba County's rate was 3.4%; Gaston & Cleveland counties both had 4.0%. Only once in the last five years was Lincoln County's unemployment rate this low--that was in December 2019. Only once in the last decade, when it was 2.9% for just one month, has the rate been any lower.