North Carolina unemployment rate for October dipped to 6.3 percent in October

North Carolina's unemployment rate keeps falling.

The state Commerce Department reported Friday that the jobless rate in October dropped to 6.3 percent, down from 6.7 percent in September. The national rate fell a fraction in October to 5.8 percent.

State employment increased by more than 17,000 between September and October, while the number of people counted as jobless fell by about the same amount.

The often-watched count of the number of people either working or looking for jobs was about even. North Carolina's labor force fell by about 26,000 people in the past year, suggesting thousands of people may have quit looking for jobs in a state with a growing population.