RALEIGH -- Not everyone agrees with state leaders' claims of success after October's unemployment numbers indicated the state has recovered the jobs lost during the Great Recession.

John Quinterno with South by North Strategies says North Carolina has more than 400,000 jobs to add to accommodate the 11-percent rate of population growth the state has experienced since 2007.

"Replacing the number of jobs lost during the recession is not enough. You have to replace those jobs and you need to be creating new jobs each month to accommodate the growth in the size of the workforce," Quinterno said.

According to South by North Strategies, the state has more than 28-percent more unemployed residents than it did seven years ago.