The state’s jobless rate continued to hover at the 3.5% mark during April with the two primary employment metrics still mostly stagnant so far in 2024, the N.C. Commerce Department reported Friday.
The April rate is just above a near-23-year low of 3.3% from March through May 2023.
The state rate has been slightly below the national rate each of the past 14 months.
Since the last time the state’s jobless rate exceeded 4% in October 2021, some economists are questioning whether it’s time to reassess whether a 5% unemployment rate still signifies full employment or could be lowered to 3.5% to 4%.
Full employment typically is defined as the economic point at which everyone who wants a job has one, employers have the skilled workers they need and there is limited inflationary pressure on wages.
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As has been the pattern for most of the past 16 months, there was monthly churn among the 10 private-sector categories during April.
In the employer survey, there was an overall 10,200-job month-over-month net gain, representing 8,200 jobs in the private sector and 2,000 jobs in government.
Leading the private-sector net gains was 2,700 in trade, transportation and utilities jobs; 1,700 each in financial activities and in professional and business services; and 1,500 in the lower-wage leisure/hospitality sector.
Meanwhile, there was a 700-position decline in manufacturing.
Year-over-year, the state had a net increase of 48,000 private-sector jobs (up 1.1%) and 15,400 government jobs (up 2.1%).
In the household survey, there was a net gain of just 2,402 individuals in the labor force from March to April, representing 1,200 more employed North Carolinians and 1,202 jobs listed as newly unemployed and looking for work.
The state’s labor force data does not distinguish how many state residents are full or part-time, temporary or how many jobs they have. Individuals who have dropped out of the labor force are not factored in the unemployment rate.
Taking a year-over-year look, the state’s labor force is up 1%, or by 43,100. That represents a net gain of 28,573 people listed as employed and an increase of 14,527 of those considered unemployed.
Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State, said in a recent opinion piece about the U.S. job market that “the availability of good-paying jobs is at the core of a good economy.”
“In recent years we have seen significant job growth as well as good wage growth,” he said.
However, Walden suggested that “there is a caveat to this good news on jobs.”
“When considering the strong job market, it is important to recognize the headline job totals include both full-time and part-time jobs,” he said. “Federal statistics show part-time jobs — defined as a person working less than 35 hours a week — have been increasing in recent years and now are a higher percentage of total jobs compared to before the pandemic.”
Walden said there are many reasons behind the pattern.
“Nevertheless, some analysts argue the greater share of part-time jobs takes some luster off the job totals,” he said.