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

March 12, 2018

Summary

• North Carolina added 8,700 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.5 percent in January according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

• Over the past twelve months, North Carolina added 70,200 jobs and the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point from 4.9 percent.

• In January, North Carolina's private sector added 7,600 jobs and over the past twelve months, it created 63,100 jobs.

• The number of unemployed North Carolinians rose by 407 in January, and over the past year 85,879 North Carolinians found jobs.

• North Carolina’s labor force participation rate remains unchanged from 61.4 percent in January.  Since last year, the labor force participation rate fell 0.1 percentage point.

• The national unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent in February.  State employment and unemployment data for February is scheduled for release on March 22, 2018.  The national employment situation report for March will be released on Friday, April 6, 2018.