Greater Wilmington appears to be mirroring a statewide trend of continued job growth in North Carolina's large metros.

The N.C. Department of Commerce’s Labor & Economic Analysis Division announced Wednesday that the unemployment rate for the region, which includes New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, was 7.1 percent in February.

That’s down from 7.6 percent in January and 10.3 percent recorded in February 2013. The region’s unemployment rate is 0.7 percentage points higher than the statewide unemployment rate of 6.4 percent

The national unemployment rate was 6.7 percent for February – up from 6.6 percent in January, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 
Overall, the unemployment rate decreased in 95 of the state’s 100 counties between January and February.

Orange County posted the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 4.4 percent, while Graham County had the highest unemployment rate at 13.8 percent.
 
The Triangle eclipsed the state’s other largest metros in job growth in February, with Durham-Chapel Hill and Raleigh-Cary posting the lowest and second-lowest unemployment rates of 5 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. Metro Rocky Mount recorded the highest unemployment rate in the state in February at 9.6 percent.

New Hanover County reported the lowest unemployment rate in the region at 6.6 percent for February, down from 7 percent in January and from 9.7 percent in February 2013.

Brunswick County posted the highest unemployment rate in the region at 8 percent in February, a decrease from 8.7 percent in January and 11.2 percent in February 2013.

Pender County posted a 7.6 percent unemployment rate in February. That was down from 8.1 percent unemployment in January and from 10.9 percent in February 2013.