A summary is below. More details are available on our State Employment Page.

January 22, 2019

Summary

• North Carolina added 1,200 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6 percent in December according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

• Over the past twelve months, North Carolina added 87,200 jobs and the unemployment rate fell by 0.9 percentage point from 4.5 percent.

• In December, North Carolina's private sector added 700 jobs and over the past twelve months, it created 82,700 jobs.

• The number of unemployed North Carolinians rose by 1,173 in December, and over the past year, 74,190 North Carolinians found jobs.

• North Carolina’s labor force participation rate remains unchanged from 61 percent in December.  Since last year, the labor force participation rate fell 0.4 percentage point.

• The national unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 3.9 percent in December.  State employment and unemployment data for January is scheduled for release on March 11, 2019.  The national employment situation report for January will be released on Friday, February 1, 2019.