Jobless See Few Options As Unemployment Rate Continues To Rise

North Carolina's unemployment rate rose for the fifth straight month in July to 5.9 percent. The state Commerce Department released figures Friday showing it climbed slightly over the previous month, as nearly 12,000 fewer people held jobs.

Anthony Steele of Winston-Salem has a four-year degree in sports management.

“I've been applying for a lot of jobs, but they tell me I'm overqualified,” says Steele.

He was laid off two years ago, and lost his apartment and car while waiting to receive his unemployment benefits--and he's not confident about his prospects now.

“I was receiving $500 a week and it helped with my bills, but now it's been cut to $350 a week and so now I'm really struggling,” says Steele. “I really don't know what I'm going to do and if I go take a job for $8.00 an hour, I'll still be struggling because I'm going to making less money than the $350 from unemployment. It's almost like I want to take it, but I really don't want to go that route.”

North Carolina employers created more than 130,000 jobs in the past year, but economists say the state is adding more people to the labor force than it's creating jobs.

Industries that saw gains during the month include manufacturing, education and health services.

At the same time, state legislators are also in the process of toughening the conditions to receive unemployment insurance benefits.

They're considering a bill that would require the state's unemployed to contact more potential employers weekly to keep receiving jobless benefits. That number would go from two a week to five.

And that concerns Aaliyah Parker of Winston-Salem. She's a recent college graduate who recently applied for unemployment benefits after losing her job at Taco Bell.

“I took out student loans and I'm worried about being able to start paying them back right now,” says Parker.

She says this proposed legislation isn't getting at the real problem.

“I feel like if you are going to get unemployment then you should be trying to find a job, but with that being said, maybe sometimes unemployment pays higher than minimum wage and so that makes people not want to find a job,” says Parker. “I don't want to give up unemployment and give up $500 a week when I would make $350 a week.”

Current law requires employment contacts to be performed on two separate days. But the proposal doesn't contain such a restriction.

One more positive Senate vote sends the bill to the governor.

*Follow Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news.