RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – “Help wanted” signs and ads still dominate the Triangle jobs market even as the latest data show a mix of good and bad news. Even as the state’s unemployment rate rose last month and the number of high tech job openings fell to an eight-month low, thousands of jobs are going unfilled.

In WRAL TechWire’s latest Jobs Report, which is published every Tuesday, let’s take a deep dive into the numbers:

The number of information technology openings has taken a hit, with fewer tech jobs posted in August 2022 than there were the prior year, according to the most recent IT Job Trends report from the North Carolina Technology Association. 

Some 31,853 jobs were posted in August, the third consecutive monthly decrease since job openings in North Carolina’s information technology sector hit record highs in May 2022. 

NC TECH did note in the most recent report that they’ve made methodological changes in the report hoping to eliminate duplicate job postings. The latest report incorporates that same methodological change in the figures for the prior month.

Help wanted: These 25 Triangle companies are looking to fill 3,300+ jobs

“Job announcements and layoffs are taking turns as headlines in the media recently and this uncertainty is apparent in the August job posting data,” said Andrea Fleming, Director of Talent + Workforce Development at NC TECH, in a statement. 

Still, IT jobs are not the state’s entire economy. 

Even though the unemployment rate increased in August by one-tenth of a percentage point compared to the prior month, the latest data from the North Carolina Department of Commerce showed that the total number of North Carolina workers actually increased in August.

And the state is still outperforming the nation, with an unemployment rate of 3.5% in the state,  vs. 3.7% nationally.

“While total employment rose, the added jobs were much less than in recent months,” said Dr. Michael Walden, an economist and regular contributor to WRAL TechWire last week.  “The jobless rate ticked up from 3.4% to 3.5% because more people entered the labor market to look for jobs than obtained jobs.”

But in another sign of possible emerging weakness, job openings at some of the region’s best-known companies have declined from more than 4,000 a month ago to some 3,300.

High-tech job openings in NC drop to lowest total in 8 months

Here’s the latest

On 14 of the 20 job sites tracked by WRAL TechWire for the weekly report, job postings have dropped.  And 70% of the job sites show a month-over-month decrease in the number of job openings.

However, in the aggregate, the total number of job postings tracked by the report has increased by 3.9% month-over-month. 

Much of those month-over-month gains in job postings comes from increases in job postings on the job board Adzuna. It showed gains of more than 8,800 postings in Wake County month-over-month and an increase month-over-month of more than 4,300 job postings in Durham County.

Tech job openings may be decreasing, however, with more evidence supporting the NC TECH report. Job postings on Dice.com, a job board specializing in IT roles, shows decreases in postings of nearly 6% month over month. 

That’s coming as recent layoffs have hit high-profile companies headquartered in the Triangle, including Pendo and Avaya.  

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.

Triangle is a job seekers market: Openings vastly outnumber the unemployed

The data on Triangle jobs

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 1 PM on Monday, September 19.  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: 58,385 (⇑+8,874 or 17.92% MoM; ⇑+15,854 YTD)
      • Raleigh: 46,421 (⇑+6,867 or 17.36% MoM; ⇑+22,477 YTD)
    • Durham County: 17,525 (⇑+4,318 or 32.69% MoM; ⇑+7,771 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 3,969 (⇑+508 or 14.68% MoM; ⇑+740 YTD)*
  • Dice.com (using the 5-mile radius filter):
    • Raleigh: 17,341 (⇓-1,058  or -5.75% MoM; ⇑+1,970 YTD)
    • Durham: 16,690 (⇓-984 or -5.57% MoM; ⇑+1,510 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 16,442 (⇓-988 or -5.67% MoM; ⇑+1,453 YTD)
  • Glassdoor: 40,220 jobs across the Research Triangle Park area (⇓-1,327 or -3.19% MoM; ⇑+5,372 YTD)
  • Indeed:
    • Raleigh: 21,879 (⇓-395 or -1.77% MoM; ⇑+5,471 YTD)
    • Durham: 12,540 (⇑+118 or 0.95% MoM; ⇑+2,503 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 3,510 (⇓-327 or -8.52% MoM; ⇓-378 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 3,588 (⇓-59 or -1.62% MoM; ⇑+2,611 YTD)
  • LinkedIn (using the “exact location” and “0-miles” filters):
    • Raleigh: 26,656 (⇓-381 or -1.41% MoM; ⇓-209 YTD)
    • Durham: 11,870 (⇓-250 or -2.06% MoM; ⇓-2,617 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 2,969 (⇓-33 or -1.1% MoM; ⇑+539 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 1,846 (⇓-191 or -9.38% MoM; ⇑+300YTD)
  • ZipRecruiter (5-mile filter):
    • Raleigh: 37,843 (⇓-493 or -1.29% MoM; ⇑+4,621 YTD)
    • Durham:  16,350 (⇓-740 or -4.33% MoM; ⇑+1,492 YTD)
    • Chapel Hill: 900 (⇓-52 or -5.46% MoM; ⇓-2,744 YTD)
    • Johnston County: 395 (⇑+4 or 1.02% 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 23 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, and in today’s report return to month-over-month comparisons.  *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 (176 startup jobs near Research Triangle Park, down 10 postings from last week)
  • LinkedIn (10,534 job openings that include “startup” in the Triangle region, ⇑+1,604 or nearly 18% MoM)
  • Indeed (237 startup jobs in/near RTP, down 15 openings from a month ago)
  • AngelList (56 job openings in Raleigh, 15 in Durham and 96 total across North Carolina, up from last week’s low numbers of openings)
  • Durham-based job site InHerSight also lists jobs at local startups among other job postings (123 this week this week within 25 miles of Raleigh, -17 or -12.14% job postings from a month ago)

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 84 roles close to Raleigh (up from 49 roles posted last week), and another 76 roles, some of which overlap, close to Durham.

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 183 jobs at 59 companies, up from 158 openings 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.

Leadership Triangle

Leadership Triangle’s job board is full of job opportunities, including from small, mid-size, and large employers. The site lists 1,603  job openings (up from 1,592 openings last week) at 30 companies.

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 148 job openings as of Monday, up from 131 last week. (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 52 positions as of Monday afternoon.

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 2,762 job openings.  That’s up 16 openings from last week, but the number of openings has decreased by 295 jobs or nearly 10% month-over-month. 

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 6,998 job openings on Monday. 

Last week, there were 8,143 openings, and the number of openings has decreased by 2,071 postings or 22.84% month-over-month.  

Still, of the current job openings, 5,280 are technology jobs (down from 6,364 openings last week and 7,105 openings the prior week), 950 are advanced manufacturing positions (down from 1,040 openings last week), 354 are in cleantech (up from 321 openings last week) and 413 are in life sciences roles (down five openings from last week).

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.  

Triangle jobs at top local firms

Here’s the latest on Triangle job openings at some of the region’s most notable employers, as of Monday afternoon, with any significant changes noted:

  • Amazon: 85 job openings in the Triangle, though some roles can be done remotely, according to the company’s career page.  Amazon is closing multiple North Carolina facilities, though a company spokesperson told WRAL TechWire that Amazon is not laying off any workers.  Workers at an Amazon facility in Garner continue efforts to unionize.  
  • Apple (corporate roles): 80 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page.  The company announced the iPhone 14 and other products at an event produced earlier this month.
  • Bandwidth: 12 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page (down from 22 openings a week ago).  The company will require its employees to work in-person five days per week, WRAL TechWire reported this month.
  • Cisco: 217 job openings in Research Triangle Park, according to the company’s career page
  • Citrix: 12 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page (up from 2 opening last week, but down from 25 openings earlier this summer)
  • Eli Lilly: 34 job openings in Research Triangle Park, according to the company’s career page
  • Fidelity Investments: 570 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page, up 15 job openings from last week
  • FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies: 62 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page
  • Google: 211 jobs openings in Durham (no change from last week), according to the company’s career page, and none at Google Fiber
  • IBM: 2 job opening in RTP, according to the company’s career page, though the company reported quarterly earnings in July and did say it would continue to hire in August.
  • IQVIA: 424 job openings in RTP (down nine openings from last week), according to the company’s career page
  • Kyndryl: 85 job openings in RTP (down 10 from last week), according to the company’s career page
  • Labcorp: 268 job openings in Burlington, N.C. (up 22 openings from last week), according to the company’s career page 
  • Lenovo: 296 job openings in Morrisville, according to the company’s career page
  • MetLife: 126 job openings in Cary, according to the company’s career page.  MetLife told WRAL TechWire last week that it planned to hire 400 workers by New Year’s Day.
  • Microsoft: 21 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page
  • NetApp: 183 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page
  • Novo Nordisk: 5 jobs in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page.  But more jobs could be coming to a Novo Nordisk location in Johnston County, WRAL TechWire reported earlier this month.
  • Novartis: 6 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page.  The company is closing a Wilson plant
  • Pendo: 5 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page.  The technology unicorn did announce there would be Pendo layoffs earlier this month with less than 5% of the company’s workforce, and less than two dozen employees in Raleigh affected.
  • Red Hat: 21 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page (down nine openings from last week).  Red Hat is owned by IBM.
  • RTI International: 126 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page.
  • SAS: 135 job openings in Cary (down 14 openings from last week), according to the company’s career page.
  • *Toshiba Global Commerce: 71 openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page. (WRAL TechWire began to track job openings at this firm less than a month ago, so no month-over-month data is available.)
  • Wolfspeed: 229 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page.  The company announced a $5 billion investment that is expected to bring some 1,800 jobs to the region earlier this month, as reported earlier this year by WRAL TechWire.

Pendo lays off about 5% of workforce, including workers in Raleigh

Upcoming hiring events

  • 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 job postings

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.)

Johnston County launches new jobs platform to connect workers to local jobs

Look for Triangle job postings on these Twitter accounts

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