Unemployment rates in Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties did not change much, if at all, from January to February of this year, according to county-by-county figures released Wednesday by the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Brunswick County saw its unemployment rate drop to 7.8 percent in February from January’s rate of 8 percent. Although that is a slight improvement, the February level of unemployment for this year is still higher than the February 2015 rate of 7.5 percent.

New Hanover County’s unemployment rate stayed steady from January to February, at 5.6 percent. That’s slightly higher than the jobless rate of 5.4 percent in February 2015.

Pender County’s unemployment level in February of this year was 6.3 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage point from January’s 6.4 percent, but up from the February 2015 rate of 6.1 percent.

The February statewide rate was 5.7 percent. 

The rates are not seasonally adjusted.

Unemployment rates decreased in 32 of North Carolina’s counties in February, increased in 30 and remained unchanged in 38, according to the Department of Commerce report. Hyde County, in northeast North Carolina, had the highest unemployment rate at 15.3 percent, while Buncombe County, in western North Carolina, had the lowest at 4.4 percent. 

Among the state’s 15 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Wilmington (which includes New Hanover and Pender counties) had an average of 5.7 percent unemployment, higher than that of the Asheville, Burlington, Charlotte, Durham-Chapel Hill, Greensboro-High Point, Hickory, Raleigh and Winston-Salem MSAs but lower than averages in the Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Greenville, Jacksonville, New Bern and Rocky Mount MSAs. The Wilmington MSA rate did not change between January and February.

Among those MSAs, Rocky Mount experienced the highest unemployment rate, 8.1 percent, and Asheville – in Buncombe County – had the lowest rate, at 4.7 percent. 

The Department of Commerce cautions that employment estimates are subject to large seasonal patterns and suggests a focus on over-the-year changes in the not-seasonally-adjusted estimates.