RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The labor market is showing more signs of strain as we head into the Labor Day weekend. And there are multiple indicators that uncertainty about the future of employment in the Triangle will persist into autumn.

The latest WRAL TechWire Jobs Report shows that while there remain tens of thousands of open jobs in the Triangle, job openings fell on 17 of the 20 national job boards tracked for the report since last week.

Further, 70% of the job boards show a four-week decrease in the number of job postings, as only six job posting websites show an increase during that time period. 

That follows last week’s report, when 13 of the 20 national job boards showed a month-over-month decrease in job openings.  

Employers may be growing increasingly concerned about a recession with data in the latest NC State Index of North Carolina Leading Economic Indicators flashing economic slowdown warning signs.

“The Index continued its decline in July,” says NCSU economist Dr. Mike Walden. “Combined with the Federal Reserve’s recent commitment to continue raising interest rates, the odds of a recession occurring have increased.”

Feds: Job openings climb in July to near record high

Layoff anxiety is growing: Searches about job losses skyrocket across Triangle, US

The latest on the Triangle job market

What’s happening: Tech job postings fell in July, including a drop of about 8,000 technology job openings compared to June 2022, according to the latest IT Jobs Trends report from NC TECH.  The report, released last week, showed a significant decline from a May 2022 high of 58,929, with 45,682 openings in July 2022. And though hiring appeared to slow in July, the latest data gathered by WRAL TechWire on the Triangle’s job market, shows that on seven of the 20 job boards tracked in the weekly WRAL TechWire Jobs Report, there were month-over-month gains.

Andrea Fleming, the director of talent and workforce development at NC TECH, called the July 2022 drop in IT job openings a “typical summer dip in hiring,” and added in a statement that postings were 9% higher than the prior July. Still, 13 of 20 jobs boards tracked by WRAL TechWire for the weekly report decreased month-over-month, and job openings fell week-over-week on 14 of those 20 searches.      

But North Carolina’s unemployment rate remains low — 3.4% according to the latest data. 

That’s ahead of the nation, as unemployment across the United States is now measured at 3.5%. And the state’s labor market “shows no signs of slowing down,” said Walden, a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University and a regular contributor to WRAL TechWire, last Friday. Here’s the latest on the Triangle region’s job postings.

Who is hiring? These Triangle tech and life science firms are still recruiting

Note: WRAL TechWire’s weekly Jobs Report compiles the latest information from the region’s top job boards, offering a breakdown of how many jobs are posted, which companies are hiring, and what positions are most in-demand. Here’s more from WRAL TechWire on the latest changes in the labor markets in our local economy.  Below, we’ve gathered the latest upcoming job fairs, student-centric resources, and a list of Twitter accounts that track local job openings.  Here’s what’s new since the last WRAL TechWire Jobs Report.

The latest on Triangle job openings

Each week, WRAL TechWire tracks the total number of Triangle-area positions posted on major job websites, across 20 different searches. Here is the latest data, as of 8 AM on Monday, August 22.  We use the shorthand abbreviation “MoM” for month-over-month and “YTD” for year-to-date in our report. This week’s report also includes tracking the month-over-month gains as a percentage increase or decrease in the total number of postings measured by WRAL TechWire.

  • Adzuna:
    • Wake County: 48,466 (⇑+6,120 or 14.45% MoM; ⇑+5,935 YTD)
      • Raleigh: 38,826 (⇑+3,940 or 11.29% MoM; ⇑+14,882 YTD)
    • Durham County: 13,159 (⇑+2,350 or 21.71% MoM; ⇑+3,405 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 3,117 (⇑+654 or 26.55% MoM; ⇓-112 YTD)*
  • Dice.com (using the 5-mile radius filter):
    • Raleigh: 18,323 (⇓-89  or -0.48% MoM; ⇑+2,952 YTD)
    • Durham: 17,626 (⇓-174 or -0.92% MoM; ⇑+2,446 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 17,356 (⇓-163 or -0.93% MoM; ⇑+2,367 YTD)
  • Glassdoor: 40,703 jobs across the Research Triangle Park area (⇑+1,809 or 4.65% MoM; ⇑+5,855 YTD)
  • Indeed:
    • Raleigh: 21,634 (⇓-1,992 or -8.43% MoM; ⇑+5,226 YTD)
    • Durham: 11,339 (⇓-2,129 or -15.81% MoM; ⇑+1,302 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 3,710 (⇓-1,087 or -22.66% MoM; ⇓-178 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 3,573 (⇓-77 or -2.11% MoM; ⇑+2,596 YTD)
  • LinkedIn (using the “exact location” and “0-miles” filters):
    • Raleigh: 21,645 (⇓-4,019 or -15.66% MoM; ⇓-5,220 YTD)
    • Durham: 11,344 (⇓-1,525 or -11.85% MoM; ⇓-3,143 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 3,717 (⇑+547 or 17.24% MoM; ⇑+1,289 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 3,578**
  • ZipRecruiter (5-mile filter):
    • Raleigh: 38,267 (⇓-2,517 or -6.17% MoM; ⇑+5,045 YTD)
    • Durham:  17,073 (⇓-466 or -2.66% MoM; ⇑+2,215 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 929 (⇓-24 or -2.52% MoM; ⇓-2,715 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 395 ( ⇓-1 or -0.25% MoM; ⇑+16 YTD)*

Is Triangle jobs market slowing? Number of openings remains volatile

Methodology on measuring Triangle job market

Editor’s Notes: The month-over-month totals are compared to our August 1 report, and the year-to-date totals compare to our Jan. 3 report.  **We’ve also updated the methodology for which we track Johnston County job openings on LinkedIn, twice now, in July and in August, as the platform updated how jobs display.  As such, we are not able to verify whether comparing prior data is a like-to-like comparison, so we’ve elected to omit that comparison from this report.  *And, the year-to-date data for Johnston County tracks from Jan. 31, 2022, when we began to track job postings in the county for the WRAL TechWire Jobs Report.   

 

Weekly Startup Jobs Report

Aside from the boards above, job seekers can also find local startup positions at these sites:

  • SimplyHired (196 startup jobs near Research Triangle Park, ⇓-3 or -1.41% MoM; ⇓-39 YTD)
  • LinkedIn (8,917 job openings that include “startup” in the Triangle region, ⇑+189 or 2.17% MoM; ⇑+850 YTD),
  • Indeed (256 startup jobs in/near RTP, ⇓-13 or -4.83% MoM; ⇓-67 YTD)
  • AngelList (42 job openings in Raleigh, 12 in Durham and 87 total across North Carolina, down 38.24%, 33.33%, and 31.50%, respectively, month-over-month)
  • Durham-based job site InHerSight also lists jobs at local startups among other job postings (141 this week this week within 25 miles of Raleigh, which is up 50 job openings from last month, when there was a summertime-low on the job board.)

Here’s a look at local and regional job sites, listed in alphabetical order, below.

AMA Triangle

AMA Triangle, the fifth-largest chapter in American Marketing Association’s nationwide network, aims to be a go-to resource for all things marketing in the Triangle. The organization provides professional training, free career webinars and a job board offering free resume placement for marketing professionals.

As of Monday, the AMA Triangle job board shows 124 roles close to Raleigh (down from 127 last week and 133 the prior week) and another 95 roles, some of which overlap, close to Durham (up from 94 last week).

American Underground

Durham-based startup hub American Underground (Editor’s Note: American Underground is owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company, the parent company of WRAL TechWire) regularly posts job openings on its job board. Job seekers can filter their search by company, location and job function. As of Monday, the site shows 175 jobs at 55 companies (up from 168 last week).

Bio Jobs Hub

Last year, WRAL TechWire and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center launched a Bio Jobs Hub platform focused on biopharma manufacturing — one of North Carolina’s largest industries, employing over 26,000 people.

Typical biopharma jobs include process technicians, maintenance and/or instrumentation technicians, quality assurance and quality control associates, process development scientists and process engineers. This industry also offers competitive entry-level salaries, from $42,000 to $60,000. Scientists, skilled laborers and recent graduates can use the Bio Jobs Hub resource to find career and training opportunities in their area. Users can search by location, job category/activity and region.

Many biopharma companies are hiring in the Triangle, including Altis Biosystems in Durham, IDDI in Raleigh, and Ascent Bio-Nano Technologies, Inc. and MedKoo Biosciences in Morrisville.  Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is hiring a head of biotech and life science ecosystem development, as well.

Leadership Triangle

Leadership Triangle’s job board is full of job opportunities, including from small, mid-size, and large employers. The site lists 1,577 job openings (up from 1,538 openings last week and up from 1,498 job openings the prior week) at 30 companies including Citrix, Google, El Centro Hispano, Nugget, Habitat for Humanity of Durham, Forward Cities, Bland Landscaping, Truist, PNC, Burt’s Bees, and North Carolina Central University.

NCBiotech

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s extensive jobs board lists open jobs and internships from local life science companies and research organizations. The organization recently updated the user interface with a fresh design. Job seekers can filter their search results by position title, job function and location. NCBiotech also touts jobs through its Bio Jobs Hub program.

The site lists 171 job openings as of Monday, down from 174 last week and down 25.33% from 229 open listings a month ago, despite strong signs that life science hiring continues to increase nationally and in the Triangle.  (Editor’s Note: This list does not include openings posted by recruiting/staffing firms.)

NC TECH

The North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH) has an interactive job board that you can use to find your next career opportunity. Users can search by keyword, location, category, type (full-time or part-time) and experience level.

Raleigh Founded

Raleigh Founded, a startup incubator and coworking space that is celebrating its 10th anniversary soon, has its own job board.  Job seekers can filter results by company, company size, industry and job function.  The site currently lists 53 positions as of Monday.

Triangle Region Job Board

Leadership Triangle, Raleigh Founded and American Underground teamed up to create the Triangle Region Job Board, which synthesizes all of the openings posted on the organizations’ job boards.

As of Monday, the site shows 2,908 job openings.  That’s down from 3,057 openings from last week, and is down nearly 10% from a month ago.

Work in the Triangle

Work in the Triangle, a Wake County Economic Development program, regularly shares new openings through its Twitter feed, @WorkTriangleNC. The program launched a job board on its website earlier this year, with 9,407 job openings on Monday.  That’s much higher than last week’s report, when there were 9,069 job openings.

And job openings on this job board increased 8.08% since a month ago, rising by 703 job postings in that time period.  Of the current job openings, 7,509 are technology jobs, 1,103 are advanced manufacturing positions, 349 are in cleantech and 445 are in life sciences roles.

Every Tuesday, Work in the Triangle’s #TriangleTuesdays hashtag lists hot jobs in the area.  Scroll through the #TriangleTuesdays hashtag on Twitter today for more details on the latest openings.  

Top firms’ role in Triangle job market

Job openings abound at the Triangle’s leading technology employers, but not uniformly. Here’s how many openings are available at more than two dozen of the region’s most well-known technology and life science employers, as of Monday morning: [LINK]  

Upcoming Job Fairs/Career Events

Here’s our latest roundup of upcoming job fairs and other resources to help people looking for employment.

  • Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions HBCU Student & Alumni Career Fair: Sept. 8, 1-4 p.m., at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions Corporate Headquarters, 3901 S. Miami Blvd., Durham, NC 27703.  Open, and free, to all current students or alumni of any HBCU.  Registration required, with registration deadline of Monday, Sept. 6. 
  • NC State Engineering Career Fair: Sept. 20–21 (in-person and virtual) In this hybrid career fair, NC State engineering students can meet with employers seeking talent across a range of industries. This is a two-day event: The first day will be held in person, while the second will take place virtually via Career Fair Plus. More details here.
  • NC TECH Virtual Jobs Fair: Oct. 5 (online). The NC TECH Job Expo is primarily focused on candidates seeking tech-related jobs/careers and internships. Whether actively seeking a job or interested in learning more about the participating employers.

NC TECH Virtual Job Expo

Other resources to find Triangle jobs

If you’re a student looking for an internship or entry-level position at a local company or organization, your university has resources to help you get started. Quick links below:

For Johnston County job seekers: The recently launched JoCo Careers website helps job seekers find companies hiring in Johnston County. (More TechWire coverage here.) https://wraltechwire.com/2022/01/10/johnston-county-launches-new-jobs-platform-to-connect-workers-to-local-jobs/

Twitter accounts to follow on the Triangle job market

Here are some locally run Twitter accounts that regularly share job openings in the Triangle:

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