How many job openings are there in North Carolina?
Updates published monthly
About 298,000, as of May 2025. The number of job openings increased by 10,000 from May 2024. A “job opening” is defined as a position open on the last business day of the month. To be considered “open,” a job must meet three conditions: (1) There’s work available for the position; (2) The job could start within 30 days; and (3) The employer is actively recruiting.
298K
job openings in North Carolina (May 2025)
10K
more unfilled jobs in North Carolina in May 2025 than in May 2024
The number of job openings is one measure of employer demand for workers and is a commonly referred-to economic indicator. An increase in the number of job openings often indicates the economy is growing, while a decline may indicate slowed growth.
The number of job openings in North Carolina has increased over the last year.
Monthly job openings (seasonally adjusted) in North Carolina, December 2000–May 2025
Following the Great Recession, monthly job openings in North Carolina increased from 79,000 in January 2010 to 229,000 in February 2020. By April 2020, job openings had dropped to 153,000. Job openings in North Carolina then reached all-time highs during recovery from the COVID-19 recession. In May 2025, there were 298,000 job openings, up 3.5% from one year prior.
The job openings rate is another way to consider this data. It tells us what percentage of all jobs, filled and unfilled, were open during a given time period. This allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
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A higher share of jobs were open in North Carolina than in the US overall in May.
Job openings rate (seasonally adjusted), May 2025
In May 2025, 5.5% of all jobs in North Carolina were unfilled. This was 0.9 percentage points higher than the job openings rate US-wide.
Job openings also differ across states and regions for many reasons, including differing economies and dominating industries. North Carolina’s May job openings rate was higher than 41 states.
In May 2025, North Carolina's job openings rate was higher than 41 states.
Seasonally adjusted job openings rate by state, May 2025
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
