County jobless rate up in Jan.

HILLSBOROUGH — Stephanie Ennis and her husband can only pay for their electricity and their car this month. They can't pay their rent"" and they're borrowing money from family to pay for food.

""We don't even live week to week anymore"" Ennis said. We live day to day.""

Ennis"43 was laid off in April 2008 from her full-time job in a call center for Aetna" a health insurance provider.

""I wake up in the morning and think" ‘I can't believe this happened"'"" the Efland resident said. ""We hardly have anything.""

Ennis is one of many Orange County residents searching for a full-time job in a state where unemployment has almost doubled in the past year.

According to numbers released Thursday" Orange County's unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent in January up from 3.4 percent a year earlier.

While statewide unemployment has continued to rise the unemployment rate in Orange County is the lowest in the state.

Durham and Wake counties follow Orange with the next lowest rates in the state — 7.3 percent and 7.4 percent respectively.

Larry Parker spokesman for the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina attributes the low rates to the area's big state employers — the education system and the hospitals" which have increased their numbers of employees by about 5.8 percent in the past year.

""I think that has helped keep things at bay for at least for a little while" Parker said. Because of the diversity here" it's going to hit us last.""

Ennis said she has been coming to the Employment Security Commission office in Hillsborough three times a week since she was laid off in April.

""This is not a happy place"" she said.

About six weeks ago she received a part-time job from Tar Heel Temps, doing research 20 hours a week.

Ennis received a degree in social sciences from Campbell University. She also served in the Marine Corps for nine years.

Being a vet — it doesn't matter"" she said. I don't know why I can't get hired.""

She said she has applied to more than 300 jobs since getting laid off last year.

""I feel like I'm going into this pool of people and getting lost"" she said. I can't get any luck.""

Job losses in the manufacturing" construction and retail industries have driven the drop in the state's employment Parker said" adding that the negative effects of job losses in those industries have started to creep into Orange County.

Almost three quarters of N.C. counties have unemployment rates higher than 10 percent.

Ennis has felt the effects for a year.

""It's really bad"" she said. I don't know what we're going to do.""



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