The March increase, however, was up only one-tenth of one percent from February when joblessness was at 6.7 percent.

Still, the county’s unemployment rate has risen every month since September of last year, when the rate was 5.6 percent.

The latest employment statistics for the county released by the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina show that Person County’s workforce — the number of Personians available for work — numbered 19,402 in March, up by more than 100 workers from 19,298 a month earlier.

While the workforce grew for the month, so did the employment ranks, only by not as much. Sixty-three more Personians founds jobs in March, taking total employment to 18,076, up from 18,013 in February.

That somewhat offset the number of newly unemployed in the county for the month as total unemployment for March advanced to 1,326, or by 41 workers, from 1,285 the previous month.

Person County was one of only seven North Carolina counties that saw a higher unemployment rate in March from Feburary, according to the ESC, which reported that 85 counties saw their jobless rates decline in March, while the state’s remaining seven counties experienced no change from February.

Orange County posted the lowest jobless rate in March at 3.4 percent, while Scotland County reported the highest at 9.6 percent.

The state average unemployment rate for the month ws 5.2 percent, down from 5.4 percent in February.

ESC Chairman Harry E. Payne Jr. was encouraged by the lower jobless rates in the preponderance of the state’s counties for the month.

“This is a welcome change for our state’s workers following two months that saw unemployment rate increases,” Payne said. “As we enter the tourism season in North Carolina, we hope to see these decreases continue, but uncertainy remains amid factors outside of our control, such as increasing gas prices,” he added.

Spurred by the skyrocketing prices of crude oil to record highs within the past week, gasoline prices likewise have soared in a matter of days in North Carolina and across the nation. The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline had risen to more than $3.615 per gallon as of Tuesday, according to price tracking by gasbuddy.com. That compared to $3.535 just a week earlier and to $2.965 a year ago.

Unemployment rates for area counties in March, with their February rates shown in parentheses, follow: Alamance, 5.4 (5.7); Caswell, 7.0 (7.5); Durham, 4.2 (4.3); Forsyth, 5.0 (5.1); Franklin, 5.4 (5.3); Granville, 5.7 (5.9); Guilford, 5.1 (5.3); Orange, 3.4 (3.6); Vance, 7.3 (7.7); Wake, 3.8 (4.0); and Warren, 7.2 (7.6).