Richmond, along with every other county in North Carolina, saw its unemployment rate decrease as the temperature increased in March.

Richmond County’s rate fell seven-tenths of a percentage point to reach 13.8 in March, in large part due to the weather allowing for people to get back to work outdoors.

Employment Security Commission of North Carolina Rockingham Local Office Manager Jack Halliburton explained better weather typically leads to more jobs in rural North Carolina.

“When the weather’s nicer, the landscapers come out,” Halliburton said. “There’s also a lot of road work going on right now, because the state has money for those improvements.”

He went on to explain increases in the construction trades also lead to more hiring where these workers get their supplies, at Lowe’s, Wal-mart and other department stores.

“Also, with all the golf courses in Richmond, Moore and Scotland counties, there’s more work to be had during the warmer months,” Halliburton continued. “So, the temp agencies are definitely taking advantage of that.”

Though that accounts for some of the growth in employment, Halliburton said the county also made progress in manufacturing, transportation and business services.

In a press release, ESC Chairman Lynn Holmes tempered the growth in jobs across the state with caution.

She also credited the state’s response to increased unemployment over the last year and a half.

“News that all North Carolina county experienced a decrease in the local unemployment rate is certainly welcome, but we still have challenges ahead of us,” Holmes said. “With initiatives like Reemployment Services (RES) and the Reempoloyment Eligibility Assessment (REA), the ESC is focusing even more resources to help our unemployed customers get back into jobs.”

Holmes also credited Gov. Perdue’s JobsNOW program, which uses stimulus funds to offer professional certification programs at the state’s community colleges at no cost to the unemployed, with linking worker and employers to resources that will put people back to work.

While Richmond’s .7 percent dip was a welcome sight for county residents and observers, it actually experienced the smallest increase of any of its neighbors.

There are also still about 3,000 registered workers in the county who are searching for their next paycheck.

Anson County led the way in the region with a 2 percent decrease in joblessness, falling from 17 percent in February to 15 in March.

Moore and Montgomery counties also saw their figures fall more than a percentage point.

In Moore, the number fell from 11.1 to 9.9 percent, and Montgomery saw its figure fall from 14.1 to 13 percent.

Scotland County, which had the highest unemployment rate in the state for much of 2009, saw a decrease of .8 percent from 17.4 to 16.6 percent. Only Graham County reported a higher rate than Scotland in March, with 17.2 percent of its workforce unemployed.

In Stanly County, there was a decrease of .9 percent, from 13.8 to 12.9.

Hoke County’s unemployment remained the lowest in the region at 8.5, a half a percentage point lower than February’s 9 percent.

While gains in hiring by area contractors may account for some of the county’s job growth in March, the industry still accounted for the most new unemployment claims in the state.

There were 6,682 workers filing an initial claim during the month after being employed in the field.

ESC Spokesman Andy James explained the industry “has been up and down over the last three months” in the state.

“We’ve seen some gains, and we’ve seen some losses,” James said.

He said that much of the rise in hiring came from the health care and government fields, specifying that much of the government hiring came in the education field.

James also said there is another deadline approaching for unemployment benefit extensions, since the Senate chose not to extend the period an individual can collect unemployment during its last session. It did extend the window for the unemployed to enroll in the extension program.

The deadline to enroll was extended from April 2 to May 2.

Should Congress move not to act on extending unemployment benefits, the period an individual can collect benefits would presumably return to the standard six months.

Workers are typically eligible to receive 26 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits, but Congress has extended that period to 99 weeks during the economic downturn.

There were about 500,000 unemployed workers in North Carolina in March.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.