How many people are laid off in North Carolina each month?
Updated monthly
About 52,000 in December 2025. This includes all terminations of employment by an employer — called layoffs and discharges — such as permanent layoffs, temporary layoffs, and terminations because of mergers, downsizing, closings, or employee performance.
52K
people were laid off or discharged in North Carolina in December 2025
606K
layoffs and discharges in North Carolina in 2025 so far
Layoffs are a constant in the labor market — from 2001 to 2019, there was an average of 709,368 layoffs and discharges a year in North Carolina. Increases in layoffs often reflect recessions or other economic disruption. For example, record-setting layoffs and discharges occurred in March and April of 2020 because of COVID-19. So far in 2025, layoffs and discharges total 606,000 in North Carolina, which is 10.1% lower than the same period in 2024.
In North Carolina, layoffs were 10.1% lower by December 2025 than by December 2024.
Cumulative monthly layoffs and discharges in North Carolina, seasonally adjusted
What is the layoff rate in North Carolina?
Another way to consider this data is to look at the layoff and discharge rate. This puts layoffs and discharges in the context of the total number of people working by showing layoffs and discharges as a percent of employed people who were laid off during the given time period. This rate allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
North Carolina’s layoff rate stayed the same between November and December 2025.
Seasonally adjusted US and North Carolina monthly layoff and discharge rates, December 2000–December 2025
In December 2025, 1% of people employed in North Carolina were laid off or discharged, the same rate as November. Compared to the national numbers, the December 2025 rate in North Carolina was lower, meaning a lower share of the North Carolina working population was laid off or dismissed in December 2025 compared to the US overall.
Average layoff and discharge rates are also useful to consider because they smooth out short-term fluctuations and clarify long-term trends.
In December 2025, North Carolina’s 12-month average layoff rate was lower than the US average.
12-month rolling average layoff and discharge rates in the US and North Carolina, November 2001–December 2025
During the first 20 years of data, the 12-month average layoff and discharge rate in the US peaked at the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 at 1.8% and during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 at 2.4%. North Carolina’s 12-month average layoff rate was the same as the US rate in June 2009 and the same in May 2020.
As of December 2025, North Carolina’s 12-month average layoff rate was lower than the US overall. At 1%, North Carolina’s average layoff and discharge rate decreased 0.1 percentage points compared to one year prior (January 2023–December 2024 average). The rate decreased 0.2 percentage points compared to two years prior (January 2022–December 2023 average).
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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.
Page sources
USAFacts endeavors to share the most up-to-date information available. We sourced the data on this page directly from government agencies; however, the intervals at which agencies publish updated data vary.
