CLT Region’s Employment Growth Outpaces the Nation
With the first update of the year, the newly revamped Charlotte Regional Business Alliance® Economic Indicators Dashboard paints a compelling story of regional resiliency, albeit with a continued hint of caution.
The Charlotte Region continues to see strong employment numbers across the board. As of December 2022, the Charlotte Region saw year-over-year employment growth of 4.6%. That growth outpaces North Carolina (4.0%), South Carolina (3.3%), and the United States (2.9%).
Source: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
Amongst similar competitor metro areas, the Charlotte Region is seeing yearly employment growth most comparatively with Tampa Bay (4.8%) and Nashville (4.5%). As the Charlotte Region routinely challenges these metro areas for new projects and jobs, keeping a close eye on these rankings provides context to how the region stacks up.
Source: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
The leisure and hospitality industry experienced the largest gains in terms of year-over-year employment, increasing by 13.3% since December of 2021, ending 2022 with more than 145,000 employed. The growth of this industry represents a significant bounce back since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recovery of leisure and hospitality is a critical marker for the Charlotte Region, and it was put to the test in December 2022. The Jumpman Invitational, the ACC Football Conference Championship, the Carolina Panthers, and the Charlotte Hornets, were just some of the events the region hosted in the last month of the year. The region will continue to depend on the industry as it has lofty goals for 2023.
While employment numbers remain mostly steady across the board, there continues to be concerns about if, when, and how much will the economy slow down. The Economic Indicators Dashboard is an excellent tool for helping us investigate those claims. For example, one can look towards job openings and postings.
Source: Lightcast Job Posting Analytic
Financial services immediately stands out as an industry that is starting to see significantly less unique job postings. Big-name financial services companies announced reduction in operations or even closure of offices, i.e., Robinhood and Better.com, in 2022. It is worth speculating on whether these announcements could have led to a reduction in industry job postings, pointing towards a potential slowdown of the economy.
Other key industries, however, remain steady. The life sciences industry peaked in job postings in May with more than 4,700 posts. As the region continues to battle new economic conditions, it will be important to monitor how aggressive employers are in their search for new hires.
For a complete look over all of the key economic indicators, please visit the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance®’s Get the Data webpage and stay tuned for the next update coming in February.
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