Triangle firms list fewer jobs but economy – especially tech – is strong, UNCC expert says

CHARLOTTE – Job openings are down across the Triangle, new data show, but that doesn’t mean the region and state economy are in trouble, says Dr. John Connaughton, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. And the tech sector is a big reason.

In fact, he says North Carolina’s technology sector is continuing to change the state.

Despite national news headlines about hiring freezes and layoffs, Connaughton told an audience at last week’s North Carolina Economic Forecast that North Carolina hasn’t seen much of an effect of layoffs, hiring slowdowns, or hiring freezes.

“We’re not as much R&D, and much more manufacturing and much less research, in terms of our tech sector here,” said Connaughton. “There’s still a lot of demand for those products and I really haven’t seen a big change now.”

The state economy is “escaping” what is occurring elsewhere in technology, noted Connaughton, who also predicted that the U.S. and North Carolina economy won’t slip into economic recession next year.

UNCC economist: No recession in 2022, nor one expected in 2023

What’s happening

Connaughton is especially bullish about the tech sector even as layoffs hit firms such as Cisco and Lenovo.

“Our tech sector is in the process of changing in this state,” said Connaughton.

One example, noted Connaughton, is Apple’s decision to construct a research hub in the Triangle. That project is going to have a big impact on what happens in the future, said Connaughton.

“That’s going to employ as many as 8,000, 9,000, maybe 10,000 people potentially,” said Connaughton of Apple’s decision to invest in the state.

And the ongoing economic development, particularly by technology and life science companies, said Connaughton, is one of the reasons that the state may be well-positioned to thrive, even in an economic downturn.

Apple’s new campus will usher in big changes for Triangle work force, jobs – here’s how

Why companies – and workers – are moving to NC

“One of the reasons that companies are moving here, particularly tech companies,” said Connaughton. “Is that it is easy to get to recruit people to come here.”

In detailing why that’s the case, Connaughton noted that in North Carolina, taxes are low relative to other states, and in many metropolitan areas, housing costs have been reasonable relative to other markets.

“These things mean that it’s fairly easy to get people to come here, and so if you look at it, there are really tight labor markets because of demographics, and you want to be someplace that’s easy to get people to come to, if you’re trying to recruit,” Connaughton said.

Another part of recruiting tech workers is the overall labor market in the region, which some may see as a safeguard against possible future job loss or as a benefit for any trailing partner in the household. So what’s happening in the Triangle’s labor market continues to be of importance as companies and individuals consider a changing economy entering 2023.

What’s happening in the Triangle?

The latest data from the WRAL TechWire Jobs Report shows that the number of job openings in the Triangle remains lower now than earlier this year.

But, there is a silver lining: many companies are still hiring, and are still posting open jobs to regional and national job boards as well as their own careers websites.

Overall, the number of open roles posted on job boards decreased on 13 of the 20 job board searches tracked by WRAL TechWire compared to a week ago.

Compared to a month ago, when job openings totaled more than 345,000 openings, the number of open roles in the Triangle has fallen by 13,640 job openings, or 3.95%.

Duplication of job opportunities on the boards means a higher number of openings but several boards individually continue to show thousands of open positions.

Job postings are dropping across Triangle – is it time to panic?

The latest on the Triangle labor market

The weekly WRAL TechWire 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 what’s changed since the last WRAL TechWire Jobs Report.

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 Monday morning. 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 and the change in opening from the beginning of the year.

Editor's Notes: The month-over-month totals are compared to our November 15 jobs 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.

Triangle Startup Jobs Report

The job market may be changing week-by-week, but in the startup ecosystem, there's a clear trendline: a decreasing number of job openings.

For the third consecutive week, the total aggregate number of jobs in the startup economy of the Triangle has fallen.

The data show that there are now just 18,813 startup jobs in the Triangle's entrepreneurial economy, where there may be overlapping postings across the 15 job boards tracked by WRAL TechWire,

That's dropped 12.1% since a month ago, when there were 21,402 posted jobs across the 15 job boards tracked in the report.

Corporate openings are decreasing, too - but not everywhere

Of the 50 firms that WRAL TechWire now tracks for the weekly WRAL TechWire Jobs Report, only 20% of them are hiring for more openings than they were a month ago.

In total, there are now 3,656 openings at these 50 firms, a decrease of 259 open positions from a month ago, when the report was tracking openings at only 42 Triangle-area firms.

Notably, Lenovo is no longer hiring for any positions in North Carolina, according to its own job portal. That comes after the company confirmed it would lay off workers, first reported last week by WRAL TechWire. As recently as last week, there were 146 openings posted as available in the Triangle region.

So who is hiring right now?