The Wilmington area’s unemployment rate ticked up in January from the previous month, but it remained below where it stood a year ago.
 
The Wilmington area, which includes New Hanover and Pender counties, saw an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent in January, compared to 4.7 percent in December and 5.7 percent in January 2016, according to figures released Friday from the state Commerce Department.
 
Across the state, the rates, which are not seasonally adjusted, increased in every county between December and January.
 
New Hanover County, which had the lowest jobless rate in January for the region at 5.1 percent, reported that nearly 6,000 people were unemployed in the county for the month. The county’s latest unemployment rate was half a percentage point lower than it was a year earlier.
 
January’s jobless rate in Brunswick County was 7.7 percent, compared to 8 percent in January 2016.
 
And Pender County’s rate in January was 5.8 percent, also down from 6.4 percent a year before.
 
The state’s unemployment rate for January stood at 5.5 percent, the N.C. Commerce Department previously reported.