Orange County’s unemployment rate saw another big drop in October, down to 4.0 percent from 4.5 percent in September.

That’s according to numbers released earlier this week by the Labor and Economic Analysis Division of the NC Department of Commerce.

Orange County is tied with Buncombe and Henderson Counties with the second-lowest unemployment rate in the state. Chatham County has the lowest rate, at 3.8 percent. (The highest rate is Graham County, 11.2 percent.)

Numbers are not seasonally adjusted, so it’s actually more useful to compare unemployment rates from year to year rather than month to month. Orange County’s unemployment rate in October of last year was 4.8 percent – so it’s dropped almost a full point in the last 12 months.

The next update will take place next Friday, December 19, when the Department of Commerce will release state-wide unemployment numbers for November.