North Carolina’s job picture

As we get closer to the end of the year, it’s a good time to take stock of the job situation. N.C. State University economist Mike Walden takes a look at the latest North Carolina jobs report and what it shows for the past year.

“Well, it did show improvement … and again I need to remind our listeners we have two job surveys that come out every month. The broadest job survey that we had showed that we had about 62,000 jobs added in the state over the last year. That’s a gain of 1.5 percent.

“Now this job survey is not only going to capture workers who are added at existing companies, it’s going to capture workers at new companies. It’s also going to capture people who are working at home.

“Now the second survey — which statistically is a sounder survey, but it’s narrower; it only looks at existing employers — showed a gain of 32,000 jobs, a gain of about 1 percent.

“So, the bottom line here is, A. We are adding jobs, but B. When you look at those percentage rates of gains – 1 percent, 1½ percent — over the last year, that’s considered rather slow.

“In terms of where most of the jobs are being created — three big sectors: professional and business services (i.e., businesses, retail and wholesale trade; that is shopkeepers et cetera) and health care. The biggest losses over the last year have occurred in construction and in government jobs.”