The unemployment rate for the Wilmington area dropped in April compared to a year earlier, according to figures released Wednesday.
 
The Wilmington metro area saw an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent – a decline of 2 percentage points from April 2013, the N.C. Division of Employment Security’s latest monthly report showed. Last month’s unemployment rate for the area also was down from 6.8 percent in March.
 
The figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations.
 
New Hanover County’s unemployment rate in April was 5.8 percent, compared to 7.8 percent a year ago. It was 6.3 percent in March, according to revised monthly figures. About 6,300 people in New Hanover County were counted as unemployed in April, the report stated.
 
In Brunswick County, the unemployment rate in April was 6.3 percent, compared to 8.4 percent in April 2013 and 7.3 percent in March of this year.
 
Pender County posted the highest unemployment rate in the region last month at 6.8 percent. But that also was a 2-percentage point drop from the same time last year. In March, Pender County had an unemployment rate of 7.7 percent.
 
Nearly all of the state’s 100 counties saw drops in unemployment rates in April.
Scotland County had the highest unemployment rate at 11.6 percent, and Orange County posted the lowest at 4 percent, the report stated.