Unemployment in the Wilmington area inched up a bit from June to July, as did the rates for all 14 of North Carolina’s metro areas and 95 of the state’s 100 counties, state officials said Wednesday.

Year over year, however, unemployment in all three counties in the area showed a significant drop from the levels of July 2013.

The preliminary county-by-county unemployment figures were released Wednesday by the N.C. Department of Commerce's Labor and Economic Analysis Division.

Unemployment for the entire Wilmington area stood at 6.8 percent, down from 8.4 percent in July 2013, but up from June's rate of 6.4 percent.

Brunswick County’s rate for July was 7.3 percent, compared with 6.9 percent in June and 8.7 percent a year ago. New Hanover County’s July unemployment stood at 6.4 percent, compared with 6.1 in June and 8 a year ago. Pender County’s rate for July was 7.4 percent, up from 6.8 the previous month but down from the rate of 9.4 percent a year ago.

Wilmington metro area’s unemployment rate of 6.8 percent tied with the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill metro area for fifth-lowest among North Carolina MSAs, behind Asheville (5.2 percent), Raleigh-Cary (5.6 percent), Durham-Chapel Hill (5.7 percent) and Winston-Salem (6.5 percent).
 
The Fayetteville metro area, and all metro areas east of Interstate 95, logged unemployment rates higher than 7 percent. Rocky Mount continued to have the highest unemployment rate of any North Carolina metro at 10.2 percent.
 
Over the past year, the sector with the biggest job losses locally was manufacturing, with a net loss of 300 jobs. Sectors that showed the greatest growth year over year were financial activities (300 jobs), professional and business services (300 jobs), education and health services (500 jobs), leisure and hospitality (2,700 jobs) and government (400 jobs).