RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The Triangle’s hiring momentum continues to gain national attention in workforce studies comparing regional job markets. A few recent research reports demonstrate local hiring trends in action.
The first two reports come from LinkedIn’s Workforce Insights unit. In March, the group ranked the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area No. 3 in the nation for the highest rate of hires and average open jobs in 2021, behind Austin and Seattle.
‘Help wanted’ ads dominate in Triangle: Jobs openings surge since Jan.
The study analyzed job opportunities in 69 metros nationwide, factoring in the number of LinkedIn members for those areas. Reflective of a solid post-COVID recovery, the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area jumped two points from 2020’s rankings.
The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area ranks among LinkedIn’s top areas for job opportunities. (Source: LinkedIn Economic Graph)
The Triangle area was also represented in LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence Index, which asked 34,692 professionals across the U.S. to gauge their confidence in job security, finance and careers on a scale of -100 to +100.
The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area ranked among the top 10 cities in the study, with respondents placing their confidence level at 45, compared to the national average of 41. (Side note: Survey respondents in another North Carolina metro area, Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, rated their confidence even higher, at 48.)
LinkedIn survey respondents in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area report higher levels of optimism than the national average. (Source: LinkedIn Economic Research)
Another recent LinkedIn analysis listed Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill among the top areas for net migration: For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in the area, 52.41 arrived in the last 12 months. (Charlotte ranked slightly higher, with 53.48 per 10,000 members.)
The report also found that national hiring increased by 3% in March, led by growth in wholesale (4.4%), professional services (3.7%) and financial services (3.2%) industries. Long-term, the technology, information and media industry continues to see hiring rates trumping pre-COVID levels, increasing 20.6% overall.
Tech Job Demand Still Hot
Ongoing national attention on the Triangle’s labor market coincides with record technology job growth in the region and across North Carolina as a whole. The North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH) released its quarterly pulse survey last week, showing that 94.3% of tech executives still plan to hire additional staff in the coming months.
Concerns remain about the state of the labor market, though. More than half of the respondents voiced concerns over talent supply and the timing of retirements.
NC’s tech leaders remain bullish, 94% planning to hire despite inflation, recession talk
Still, NC TECH’s latest IT Job Trends report counted 49,143 IT job openings across the state in March, up 38% from March 2021.
The Raleigh metro area has 15,320 open positions, while Durham-Chapel Hill has 4,926. Compared to a year ago, the two metros have seen a 26% and 23% jump in IT job postings, respectively.
A look at the total number of IT job postings in North Carolina, as measured in NC TECH’s March 2022 IT Job Trends Report.
NC TECH’s report also noted that the top five job titles in March were senior software engineer, software engineer, project manager, DevOps engineer and data engineer—all of which are consistently featured in our weekly Jobs Report, a roundup of local job openings.
It also listed the top 10 hirers for tech talent, including Deloitte, General Dynamics Information Technology, Bank of America, Microsoft, Accenture, PwC, Wells Fargo, KPMG, EY and Humana.
