Triangle firms keep looking for talent with nearly 50,000 open positions

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Recession fears are growing thanks to rate hikes, surging oil and gas prices and concerns that the housing market will finally cool. But one of the most important parts of the US economy — the labor market — remains strong. That’s especially true in the Research Triangle Park area.

How strong? One site (Dice.com) added 32 new positions alone on Sunday and Monday. Here’s another: Talent management firm Vaco has 55 open positions with 13 of those being posted over the last eight days.

Jobs site Adzuna lists more than 48,000 open positions with Glassdoor and Dice noting well over 35,000. Indeed cites 17,000 jobs available just in Wake County, according to data reviewed for WRAL TechWire’s exclusive, weekly Jobs Report.

A review of major jobs boards and help wanted sites as of early July 4 show thousands of positions – from part-time to contractor to full-time – remain availabile. Despite all the talk about a looming recession, inflation and supply chain woes many Triangle employers keep adding jobs. Glassdoor and Dice, for example, are up some 500 jobs over the June 27 Jobs Report from WRAL TechWire. Other major sites remain flat or show slight declines in numbers.

And the need for talent remains drivers with a mixture of Varsity Tutors, Wake Med, Oracle, PWC and Advanced Auto Parts listed as the hottest hirers at Adzuna.

Especially strong is the tech sector where Work in the Triangle lists more than 10,000 openings. They include:

• More than 8,100 in tech
• More than 450 in life sciences
• Nearly 1,100 in advanced manufacturing
• And 327 in clean tech

The Triangle numbers reflect a national market in which workers are in the proverbial driver’s seat, commanding healthy paychecks as many businesses find it difficult to hire workers in the midst of the Great Resignation.

State wide, companies also are trying to fill open jobs. North Carolina’s job opening rate in the month with the most recent data was calculated to be 8.10% and the rate over the prior 12 months was 7.33%, according to a WalletHub study.

Report: Employers are struggling to hire talented workers in North Carolina

But could even the job market be poised to finally take a turn for the worse?

The government reports the June payroll figures Friday. The data will wrap up a busy week of jobs news, including weekly unemployment numbers and monthly reports from payroll processor ADP about private sector jobs as well as the government’s job openings and labor turnover (JOLTS) survey.

Economists are forecasting that 295,000 jobs were added in June. That’s still a healthy amount, but lower than the 390,000 jobs gained in May as well as the revised jump of 436,000 jobs in April.

The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 3.6%, but it is likely to eventually start creeping higher. According to projections taken at the Fed’s latest meeting earlier this month, members of the central bank are predicting that the unemployment rate will end this year at 3.7%, rise to 3.9% next year and hit 4.1% in 2024.

That’s still historically low of course. But there are concerns that American workers won’t be able to keep up with rampant inflation as wage gains start to slow. Average hourly earnings rose 5.2% year-over-year in May, down from a 5.5% rate in April.

Economists, investors and job seekers will be keeping a close eye on the figures for June to see if there is a further deterioration in wage growth.