The unemployment rate dropped sharply in the Triangle last month, according to numbers released last week by the NC Department of Commerce.

In Orange Count, the unemployment rate dropped from 5.4 percent in August to 4.5 percent in September – almost a full percentage point in a single month. That’s no surprise – the numbers are not seasonally adjusted, and Orange County’s unemployment rate usually goes up in the summer and down again in the fall – but the 4.5 percent rate is also down 0.2 percent from where it was in September of 2013.

Alamance, Chatham, Durham, and Wake Counties also saw big drops in their unemployment rates from August to September – drops ranging from 0.7 percent to 1.1 percent, all in a single month. And all four counties also have lower unemployment rates in 2014 than they did at this time last year; Alamance County’s rate is down more than a full percentage point from September 2013 (down from 7.2 percent last year to 5.9 percent this year).

Read the full report, from the DOC’s Division of Employment Security.

Across the state, Chatham and Currituck Counties are tied with the lowest unemployment rate, 4.2 percent. Graham County has the highest, 12.2 percent.

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