Patrick McHugh

July labor market figures show more NC communities recovering the jobs lost to COVID-19. After adding more than 30,000 jobs in July, there are almost 170,000 more positions statewide than before COVID-19. While there are still many communities that need support to recover, there are encouraging signs that job growth has been more evenly spread across the state than in some earlier parts of the crisis.

July marked a milestone for the United States as the nation finally recovered all of the jobs lost in the early months of COVID-19. North Carolina has been back above pre-COVID levels since late last year, as a boom at the top and the bottom of the wage scale drove a recovery that has been…

June was a scorcher outside and in many local labor markets. Total hiring in NC continued at a rapid clip through the first six months of 2022, pushing total employment 130,000 jobs beyond pre-pandemic levels. Job openings have come down somewhat in the past few months compared to the peaks we saw in December 2021 and March this year, but there have still been tens of thousands more jobs on offer each month this year than in the corresponding months of 2019 before COVID-19.

As the great Mark Twain observed, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. So it is with the employment landscape in North Carolina. We’ve been seeing job opportunities blossom in some of North Carolina’s urban areas while bypassing many smaller towns and rural areas for years, but what’s happening now is remarkable. North Carolina…

April’s jobs figures show North Carolina remains on a hot streak, but the picture isn’t the same for every North Carolina worker. Nearly 75,000 jobs have been added since the start of the year, which puts NC more than 105,000 jobs above pre-pandemic levels. That’s a remarkable track record, but barriers to employment remain, particularly…