Job postings in Triangle are shrinking, declining 15% with ‘caution in the air’

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Following the recent decision by the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee to again raise interest rates – this time, by one-half of one percent – employers and job seekers alike appear more cautious this winter.

That’s according to Paul Lewis, the chief customer officer at Adzuna, one of the job boards included in the weekly WRAL TechWire Jobs Report, who spoke with WRAL TechWire.

The availability of jobs has dropped to a new low since WRAL TechWire updated the methodology for its Jobs Report in June 2022.

From a high of some 360,000 job postings – including duplications – in October, openings fell to some 310,000 as of Sunday. That’s a drop of more than 15%.

The new numbers are reflected in other reports: High-tech job openings across the state are down 20%, says the NC TECH Association, and North Carolina’s unemployment rate has risen to nearly 4%.

“There is caution in the air, as jobseekers and employers battle high inflation and concerns about a coming recession,” said Lewis. “As a result, fewer people are moving jobs and there are fewer job postings needed to backfill those movers.”

High-tech job openings across NC plunge nearly 20% in November

Layoffs are also on the minds of those in the Triangle, said Lewis. Such layoffs, in the tech sector specifically, may signal the reversal of “strong growth in the sector seen in the post-pandemic boom,” Lewis said.

And even though seasonal hiring typically increases, “this year this has been more subdued,” Lewis noted.

Lewis shared Adzuna data, which appears in the table below, for roles currently posted in Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, and across both North Carolina and the United States, which is a point-in-time view of how employers are marketing job location within job advertisements.

“One of the main trends being that as employers become firmer on mandatory in-person policies, the return to office life will start to normalize again with the addition of “in real life” perks and benefits,” Lewis forecasted for 2023.

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

What's happening

Even as overall listings drop, there continues to be 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.

That's even as some duplication of job postings is occurring across the job board searches tracked for the weekly analysis, which has been consistent in all prior jobs reports.

Overall, the number of open roles posted on job boards decreased on all 20 of the 20 job board searches tracked by WRAL TechWire compared to a week ago and on 19 of the 20 job boards this month compared to a month ago, when the report tracked jobs open the week prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.

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 22 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.

NC unemployment rate rises to 3.9% – a ‘negative sign’ for labor market

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, especially on the LinkedIn platform.

For the fourth 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 16,915 startup job postings based in the Triangle's entrepreneurial economy, though there may be overlapping postings across the 15 job boards tracked by WRAL TechWire.

On only three of those 15 job boards have openings increased compared to last week, with no change on two of the job boards. Further, 10 of the 15 job board searches show a weekly decrease in job postings, and 10 of the 15 show a month-over-month decrease in openings. Since a month ago, the number of jobs advertised has dropped 28.44%, or a decrease of 6,722 job postings.

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 18 firms looking for more workers now than a week ago.

Some 20% of firms are seeking more workers than they were a month ago, consistent with last week's analysis. But openings continue to slide, with the number of job openings falling by 118 since a week ago at these 50 companies.

So who is hiring right now?