Triangle job boards show decline in openings but opportunities still available

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The Triangle’s labor market is slowing, though workers are still very much in demand for some of the region’s largest employers.

“Labor markets are softening, on the margins, here, and they’re likely to get worse,” said Dr. Eugene Flood, an economist who spoke on a panel at the Economic Forecast Forum in Durham last Friday.

Compared to one month ago, there’s been a 10.55% decrease in the number of job openings, the latest WRAL TechWire Jobs Report found.

In addition to slowing hiring, Flood also noted that the region and the economy is “starting to see layoffs.”

UNC economist: Today’s jobs report signals a recession is coming in 2023

What’s happening

In early October, the number of open job postings as tracked by the WRAL TechWire Jobs Report hit an all-time high, with about 368,000 total openings in the region.

But since, there’s been a steep drop in openings in the prior three months.

Now, there are fewer than 300,000 job advertisements across the 20 job board searches tracked in the weekly report.

Still, even as the total number of job openings has fallen, every single company that WRAL TechWire tracks is looking to hire at least one new worker. And the U.S. economy continues to add workers, with the most recent Labor Department data showing that 223,000 jobs were added to the economy in December 2022.

Labor Department data also showed that there are still 1.7 job openings for every unemployed worker, according to the New York Times. That means that workers are still very much in demand.

“Hiring will remain strong for skilled software developers and data scientists,” said Tom Snyder, executive director at RIoT. “Companies that have had recent difficulty finding talent may have more options. But I expect demand to still outstrip supply in those skill areas, so it remains a good time for talent.”

The latest on the Triangle labor market

Compared to a week ago, the total number of job openings dropped by 3.26%, nearly 10,000 advertisements for open positions.

But job postings increased on 7 of the 20 job boards tracked in the report.

And compared to a year ago, the number of job openings posted remains elevated, with 18,882 more job advertisements, an increase of 6.57%.

Our 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.

Each week, WRAL TechWire tracks the total number of Triangle-area positions posted on major job websites, across 20 different searches. The month-over-month totals are compared to our December 13 jobs report, and the year-over-year totals compare to our Jan. 10, 2022 report.

Here’s what’s changed since last week’s WRAL TechWire Jobs Report.

Triangle Startup Jobs Report

In the Triangle startup ecosystem, the number of job openings continues to decrease, the latest data show.

But that doesn't mean that the region's startups are in bad shape.

Instead, said Scot Wingo, the founder of Spiffy and founder of the Triangle Tweener Fund, there's been great activity in the region's startup scene.

"Venture investment will go down," said Wingo. "But what is happening is that is for larger companies."

Growth-stage and early-stage startups in the Triangle are still active, said Wingo, who spoke last week at the Launch 2023 event hosted by the Raleigh Chamber.

"We haven't seen a slowdown, we've actually seen a lot of activity," said Wingo, of those smaller companies.

"In conclusion, the data that I see, everything in our startup ecosystem is very robust, we've grown 5x over the last seven years," Wingo said. "And I don't see it slowing down."

Still, for the seventh 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 16,552 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.

Who's hiring in the Triangle?

Of the 50 firms that WRAL TechWire now tracks for the weekly WRAL TechWire Jobs Report, 18 firms are looking for more workers now than they were a month ago.

But every single company tracked in the WRAL TechWire Jobs Report is hiring at least one position, the latest report found.

"Candidates still have a lot of choices and the job market is very much still favoring potential job seekers, especially those with technical skill sets that have historically and continue to be in high demand," said Jessica Mitsch Homes, founder and CEO of Momentum Learning in an interview with WRAL TechWire.

The latest data show that these 50 employers are currently hiring for 3,454 open positions. That's a drop of 8.6% compared to the number of job openings a month ago, but a slight increase from last week's report.