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North Carolina’s unemployment rate fell further below 4% in February, the state Commerce Department said on Friday, as the rolls of the unemployed continued to fall.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 3.7% compared to 3.9% unemployment in January — extending a streak in which the state hasn’t logged a month-over-month rising rate since September 2020. The December rate was 4.1%.

The number of those unemployed declined by over 10,150 people to about 187,250, a department news release said, while those working grew by 18,100 to almost 4.83 million people.

With another counting format based on monthly worksite surveys, the agency reported seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment rose by 22,400 to almost 4.69 million. The leisure and hospitality services industry and professional and business services sector saw the largest percentage increases in employment in February.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, citing state economists, said last week that the state’s economy had recovered to pre-pandemic employment levels last July.

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