Raleigh – The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this morning that unemployment in North Carolina remains above 7 percent after nearly tripling between March and April this spring. The state’s unemployment rate is 3.6 percent higher than it was in June 2019. 

At a roundtable event earlier this week, Ivanka Trump urged the nation’s 18 million unemployed workers to “find something new” as the administration continues to struggle with its response to the pandemic. 

NCDP Chairman Wayne Goodwin released the following statement: 

“The story of President Trump’s response to the coronavirus is one of denial and incompetence. He ignored the warnings of his advisors and let this virus spread before taking action, forcing states to close their economies. He let small businesses across North Carolina be shut out of the Paycheck Protection Program, closing many of them permanently. And now, as hundreds of thousands in our state remain out of work, he refuses to consider new stimulus money while his administration tells unemployed North Carolinians to ‘find something new.’ 

The Trump administration’s mismanagement of the situation has magnified this crisis and the president’s tone deaf message to workers who have lost their jobs is all the more reason to vote him out of office come November.”