Encouraging, and Discouraging Numbers on Unemployment

The good news is that unemployment in New Hanover County is down .9% over the last year.

The bad news is that unemployment in Wilmington is about 1.5% higher than in the unincorporated area and beach towns combined.

How is this possible?  Let's take a look.

Unemployment in Wimington is 9.2%; and 8.5% in the county as a whole.

The Wilmington population is about 106k; the population for the county is 203k, meaning that Wilmington is 52% of the total population of the county.

So, let's get out our thinking hats to figure out how much higher unemployment is in Wilmington than in the unincorporated area and beach towns.

The equation would be:  .52 (Wilmington pop. as % of NHC) * 9.2 (Wilmington unemployment rate) + .48 (nonWilmington population as % of NHC) * x (unknown unemployment rate in nonWilmington NHC area) = 8.5 (total county unemployment)

Solving for x gives us about 7.7%, meaning that the unemployment rate inside NHC but outside Wilmington is a full 1.5% lower than inside the city of Wilmington.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON INSIDE WILMINGTON TO RAISE THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE SO MUCH!!!????

Oh, wait a second.  I know.