Unemployment rates remained relatively flat across the Cape Fear region in December, according to county data the state released Wednesday.

New Hanover’s rate was 4.9 percent in the last month of 2014; 5 percent in November. Brunswick County’s number rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent while Pender County’s was 5.4 percent in December and 5.5 percent in November, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce's Labor and Economic Analysis Division.

The Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area for December remained the same as November's but at 5.4 percent was an improvement from a year earlier when the area's unemployment rate stood at 7 percent. None of the rates is seasonally adjusted, according to the release.

Compared to the same month last year, rates decreased in 99 of the state’s 100 counties. Some economists consider rates of about 5 percent to be indicative of full employment, said William "Woody" Hall, senior economist at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, in a previous story.

Last year’s loss of incentives for new North Carolina employers has already had an impact when it comes to job creation, said Jim Bradshaw, director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission.

“As far as industrial prospects thus far, there aren’t any,” he said Wednesday. Larger industrial employers are looking in other states, Bradshaw said, “and not even considering us.”

He said hopefully the situation will change when or if state lawmakers reinstate economic incentives.

But there is some good news at the start of 2015 for Brunswick County, Bradshaw said, based on the commission's recent visits with five existing industries in the Southport area.

“All five are planning to hire additional folks this year, which is great,” he said, not disclosing the specific employers.

The commission’s existing-industry visits in the Leland area will begin Feb. 19, Bradshaw said.

Unemployment rates decreased in 11 of the state’s 14 MSAs in December, state statistics show. The Rocky Mount MSA had the highest unemployment rate at 7.7 percent while Asheville had the lowest at 4 percent.