Johnston County — The number of jobless Johnstonians surged in May, the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported.

The county’s jobless rate climbed to 5.3 percent in May from 4.7 percent in April. In all, 4,101 people were without jobs.

Don Bedsole is an assistant manager in the ESC’s Smithfield office. He said Johnston employers were shedding workers because of the struggling economy.

“There is a lot of construction-related layoffs because the housing industry has slowed down,” Bedsole said.

“Anything that uses fuel, the trucking companies, the lumber industry ... we are seeing some slowdowns. It’s all tied together. Everything is kind of interconnected, and it affects everything else.”

Statewide, the May jobless rate jumped to 5.8 percent. It was the fifth consecutive monthly increase and the highest jobless rate for the state since February 2004.

ESC Chairman Harry Payne Jr. said the job market was tighter now than ever before. “Jobseekers, whether they are students and recent graduates or workers needing additional money, are having a tougher time finding jobs than in the past couple of years,” he said.

Recent high school and college graduates make up a chunk of the jobless in Johnston County, Bedsole said. But compared to other counties, such as Scotland with 10.3 percent jobless and Edgecombe with 9.8 percent, Johnston is faring well, he said.

“I have been here for five years, and our rates have always been a little better compared to other portions of the state,” he said.

Still, the May spike was unusual, Bedsole said. “I think it’s a noteworthy increase, and I think it remains to be seen whether or not it will continue to grow,” he said.

Michael de Sherbinin, director of economic development in Johnston, said he was not aware of layoffs at any large employers. Indeed, local employers like Caterpillar Logistics, Hamlin Sheet Metal Co. and PGI Nonwovens, continue to excel in the economy, de Sherbinin said.

“For a period of about two years in the early ‘90s, we were in a recession and eventually got out of it,” he said.

“The resiliency of this economy and our location next to a very thriving metro area allows us to be more viable than counties east to us that don’t have the road infrastructure, experienced labor force and good education system.”

Within the home-building industry, subcontractors are suffering most, said Bradley Stancil, vice president of Stancil Builders. Many subcontractors are calling Stancil Builders daily to see if they can land a job for extra cash, he said.

“At one time, we had as many as six superintendents and we’re down to four now,” Stancil said.

His company has seen a 50-percent drop in residential construction but remains strong in commercial construction, Stancil said. “The only thing that is helping us is we do a lot of commercial work, and commercial work is doing really good right now,” Stancil said. “Commercial work is offsetting residential, because if the commercial work wasn’t keeping us busy, we wouldn’t have anything to do.”

Johnston County builder Darryl Evans said the whole construction industry was being forced to make tough decisions about employees. “I think there have been some cuts here and there, and [employers] have tried to just hang on to who they could,” he said. “There are some different companies that had to let people go. I hate to speak for them, but I am just going by what I heard in general conversation. There is definitely some of that going on.”