Oct. 24--Wilson County's unemployment rate dropped for the third month in a row, but thousands of residents are still out of work.

The September unemployment rate of 11.9 percent improved from the August rate of 12.9 percent, the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported Friday.

Even though 458 people went back to work in September, 4,841 people are still unemployed in the county. The state unemployment rate also dropped to 10.4 percent from the August rate of 10.8 percent.

The reason for an improvement in the rate is due to seasonal tobacco workers returning to work at Alliance One International in Wilson and Universal Leaf Tobacco Co. in Nashville, said Geneice Hagans, manager of the Wilson office of the Employment Security Commission.

"The current drop was the tobacco factories starting to hire," Hagans said. "A great majority of these people are going back to work so that's contributing to our drop."

Seasonal tobacco workers started returning to work in August. They usually work from August through January.

The unemployed are still facing barriers in finding work due to the lack of jobs available. The ESC office is not receiving many job advertisements for work in the area.

"Right now, we don't have a lot of jobs coming in," Hagans said. "We're hoping the economy starts to pick up soon but we're not seeing it. Our major manufacturers are not giving any indication that they will be doing any major hiring soon."

Unemployment rates in nearby counties also showed some changes for the month of September. Nash County's rate was 11.9 percent, down from 12.4 percent in August; Edgecombe remained steady at 16.3 percent; Greene improved to 10.2 percent from 11 percent; Johnston dropped to 9.5 percent from 9.6 percent; Pitt improved to 10 percent from 10.4 percent; and Wayne improved to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent.

rochelle@wilsontimes.com -- 265-7818

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