Tagged: NC Department of Commerce

Thousands of North Carolina residents have been notified that their extended unemployment benefits will expire by the end of the week.

Leoneda Inge:  Notices were sent out to 17-thousand unemployed workers, informing them of the bad news.  The extended jobless benefits from the state kicked-in four years ago, during the recession.  But because of the steady drop in North Carolina’s unemployment rate, the extended benefits, or E-B trigger has stopped.  Larry Parker is a spokesman for the Commerce Department’s Division of Employment Security.

More than 80 counties across North Carolina experienced a drop in their unemployment rates.  But communities in the eastern and western corners of the state did not fare as well.

The scientific concept of nano-technology became popular in the 1990s.  A conference this week in Durham focuses on the commercial applications of nano-technology.

Leoneda Inge:  Today kicks off a two-day Nanotech Commercialization Conference at American Tobacco in Durham.   John Hardin heads the office of Science and Technology at the North Carolina Department of Commerce, a sponsor of the conference.   He says there will be many researchers at the conference but also many business developers.

North Carolina’s unemployment rate has remained over 10-percent for the past year.   Despite the high rate, one sector continues to experience growth.