Richmond County showed improvement in its employment figures along with 58 of the other 99 counties in North Carolina, primarily on the strength of summer positions being filled by local employers.

The jobless figures dropped nearly half a percentage point to reach 13.6 percent. That is down from when the jobless rate peaked at 15 percent in the county in February. Since then the rate has hovered at or above 14 percent.

More than 2,800 registered workers remain without a job through the end of the month in Richmond, despite seasonal hiring.

“We’re certainly glad that it went down,” said Employment Security Commission Rockingham Office Manager Judy Carpenter said. “We’ve had some hiring from Big Rock and BE&K, so we’re excited.”

Big Rock is the newest occupant of the Richmond County Industrial Park off Highway 74, and BE&K is the contracting company handling facility expansion by Progress Energy.

In the state as a whole, the rate remained unchanged according to a press release from the ESC.

More than 5,000 jobs were added in the Professional and Business Services sector of North Carolina’s economic engine and budget cuts made casualties of more than 21,000 public sector jobs.

Manufacturing jobs continued their decline, however, with over 5,000 of them falling by the wayside.

The leisure and hospitality industry picked up about 2,700 jobs.

ESC Chairman Moses Carey Jr. said that while there was a decrease in most of the counties’ figures, the state continues to experience challenges posed by the weak global and national economy.

“Employment growth was modest in many of our counties in July,” he said in a release, noting that summer employment was down from previous years.

Scotland County retained the highest unemployment numbers in the state with a rate of 17.1 percent. That is nearly a whole percentage point higher than Edgecombe County which checked in with the second highest jobless rate at 16.3.

Anson saw a comparable drop in jobless figures, falling from 15.2 percent to 14.9 percent.

Montgomery saw an increase of .2 percent to reach 13.9, while Moore County saw a decrease of the same amount. Moore is now poised at 10.1 percent.

Hoke County remains the regional leader. Its numbers remained below 9 percent.

Researcher John Quinterno pointed out the slight fluctuations in the county figures don’t represent any comprehensive change.

“The basic employment story in communities across North Carolina remained unchanged in July,” he said. “While conditions are not deteriorating as sharply as they were earlier in the year, they are not improving either.”

The release explains that while the state numbers as a whole are adjusted to account for seasonal fluctuations such as summer hiring, the county figures are not.

“This comparison is a misleading one,” the release reads.

His analysis found July was the 10th consecutive month there was a net loss in jobs across the state. There were 26,400 fewer jobs in the state at the end of July than at the end of June.

“The July employment report suggests that the pace of job loss in North Carolina has slowed, thanks in part to the federal recovery package, but the overall trajectory remains a downward one,” says Quinterno. “Overall economic conditions remain quite weak, and unless the demand for goods and services increases, North Carolina communities will struggle with high levels of joblessness well into the future.”