RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The United States economy added 261,000 jobs in October, even as many technology companies announced layoffs or hiring freezes. And though there are some signs of headwinds in the Triangle’s economy and labor markets, the number of job openings has increased significantly in the past week.
The jump ends a streak of three straight weeks when postings fell to their lowest total since early June.
Yes, some companies have slowed hiring for facilities based in the Triangle, but there are many others that continue to hire. Jobs site Adzuna, for example, lists 59,000 jobs in Wake County – up 18% from a week ago. And that number is up more than 16,000 year over year.
“Job gains were higher than many economists expected,” said Dr. Michael Walden, an economist at North Carolina State University of last week’s report. “The job market continues to defy a recession.”
But that doesn’t mean there’s not uncertainty about economic trends as interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve could drive the economy into recession.
“We are in the midst of conversations with our top employer partners about their 2023 hiring plans,” said Jessica Mitsch Homes, co-founder and CEO of tech training firm Momentum, in an interview with WRAL TechWire. “Some of the firms we work with are still unsure of what their plans will be next year while others have confirmed plans to bring on new associate level technologist at the same rates we’ve seen them hire at in the past.”
And even with layoffs at Meta and Twitter, and hiring freezes announced at Apple and Amazon, all in the last week, Homes noted that the local companies with whom she works are not cutting jobs at all, instead noting that firms continue to hire for entry-level associate roles.
“There have certainly been announcements recently of notable tech companies laying off workers,” said Homes. “We have not seen layoffs of software engineers or other technology roles at the local companies where we have graduates.”
There’s ‘lot to like’ about Triangle jobs market, economist says – here are 4,000+ open jobs
What’s happening with the Triangle jobs market?
The latest analysis shows that the number of job openings increased from last week on 16 of the 20 job board searches tracked by WRAL TechWire, with the aggregate total increasing by more than 22,595, or an increase of nearly 7% week-over-week.
Last week, job openings fell to the lowest point since WRAL TechWire updated the methodology in tracking the job postings in the Triangle in June 2022, with 328,275 postings tracked a week ago.
But even with the latest week-over-week gains, job postings fell compared to a month ago, with 16,676 openings fewer than tracked in the October 10, 2022 WRAL TechWire Jobs Report.
That’s a drop of 4.5% month-over-month.
And only 4 of the 20 job boards tracked by WRAL TechWire show an increase in job openings from a month ago, with 16 of the 20 job boards tracked showing month-over-month decreases. Workers are growing increasingly worried about losing their jobs if a recession – which the Federal Reserve may now have no choice but to “engineer,” according to Christian Lundblad, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – hits the U.S. economy and the Triangle.
Note: WRAL TechWire’s weekly Jobs Report compiles the latest information from the region’s top job boards, offering a breakdown of how many jobs are posted, which companies are hiring, and what positions are most in-demand. Here’s more from WRAL TechWire on the latest changes in the labor markets in our local economy. Below, we’ve gathered the latest upcoming job fairs, student-centric resources, and a list of Twitter accounts that track local job openings. Here’s what’s new since the last WRAL TechWire Jobs Report.
The data on Triangle jobs
Each week, WRAL TechWire tracks the total number of Triangle-area positions posted on major job websites, across 20 different searches. Here is the latest data, as of Monday afternoon. We use the shorthand abbreviation “MoM” for month-over-month and “YTD” for year-to-date in our report. This week’s report also includes tracking the month-over-month gains as a percentage increase or decrease in the total number of postings measured by WRAL TechWire.
Methodology on measuring Triangle job market
Editor’s Notes: The month-over-month totals are compared to our October 10 jobs report, and the year-to-date totals compare to our Jan. 3 report. **We’ve also updated the methodology for which we track Johnston County job openings on LinkedIn, twice now, in July and in August, as the platform updated how jobs display, and in today’s report return to month-over-month comparisons. *And, the year-to-date data for Johnston County tracks from Jan. 31, 2022, when we began to track job postings in the county for the WRAL TechWire Jobs Report.
Layoff Watch: Tech firms have cut more than 100,000 jobs – and more are coming
Weekly Startup Jobs Report
Aside from the boards above, job seekers can also find local startup positions at these sites:
- SimplyHired (166 startup jobs near Research Triangle Park, down seven openings from last month)
- LinkedIn (9,455 job openings that include “startup” in the Triangle region, down 217 jobs from a month ago)
- Indeed (205 startup jobs in/near RTP)
- AngelList (25 job openings in Raleigh, 5 in Durham and 62 total across North Carolina)
- Durham-based job site InHerSight also lists jobs at local startups among other job postings (211 openings this week)
Here’s a look at local and regional job sites, listed in alphabetical order, below.
AMA Triangle
AMA Triangle, the fifth-largest chapter in American Marketing Association’s nationwide network, aims to be a go-to resource for all things marketing in the Triangle. The organization provides professional training, free career webinars and a job board offering free resume placement for marketing professionals.
As of Monday, the AMA Triangle job board shows 74 roles close to Raleigh (down 23 roles from a month ago), and another 46 roles, some of which overlap, close to Durham (down 20 roles open last month).
American Underground
Durham-based startup hub American Underground (Editor’s Note: American Underground is owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company, the parent company of WRAL TechWire) regularly posts job openings on its job board. Job seekers can filter their search by company, location and job function. As of Monday, the site shows 120 jobs, down 24 openings from a month ago.
Bio Jobs Hub
Last year, WRAL TechWire and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center launched a Bio Jobs Hub platform focused on biopharma manufacturing — one of North Carolina’s largest industries, employing over 26,000 people.
Typical biopharma jobs include process technicians, maintenance and/or instrumentation technicians, quality assurance and quality control associates, process development scientists and process engineers. This industry also offers competitive entry-level salaries, from $42,000 to $60,000. Scientists, skilled laborers and recent graduates can use the Bio Jobs Hub resource to find career and training opportunities in their area. Users can search by location, job category/activity and region.
Many biopharma companies are hiring in the Triangle.
Leadership Triangle
Leadership Triangle’s job board is full of job opportunities, including from small, mid-size, and large employers. The site lists 1,445 job openings at 30 companies (down 264 jobs from a month ago).
NCBiotech
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s extensive jobs board lists open jobs and internships from local life science companies and research organizations. The organization recently updated the user interface with a fresh design. Job seekers can filter their search results by position title, job function and location. NCBiotech also touts jobs through its Bio Jobs Hub program.
The site lists 174 job openings as of Monday, down 20 roles from a month ago. (Editor’s Note: This list does not include openings posted by recruiting/staffing firms.)
NC TECH
The North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH) has an interactive job board that you can use to find your next career opportunity. Users can search by keyword, location, category, type (full-time or part-time) and experience level. NC TECH released the September IT Jobs Report last week, which found more than 37,000 openings, the third most in any month of the last 13 months.
Raleigh Founded
Raleigh Founded, a startup incubator and coworking space that celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, has its own job board. Job seekers can filter results by company, company size, industry and job function. The site currently lists 71 positions as of Monday.
Triangle Region Job Board
Leadership Triangle, Raleigh Founded and American Underground teamed up to create the Triangle Region Job Board, which synthesizes all of the openings posted on the organizations’ job boards.
As of Monday, the site shows 2,599 as of Monday. That’s down 100 job openings a week ago.
Work in the Triangle
Work in the Triangle, a Wake County Economic Development program, regularly shares new openings through its Twitter feed, @WorkTriangleNC. The program launched a job board on its website earlier this year, with 7,401 active job listings as of Monday afternoon. Last week, there were 6,271 job openings on Monday. Compared to a month ago, there are now 1,578 more job openings than a month ago.
Every Tuesday, Work in the Triangle’s #TriangleTuesdays hashtag lists hot jobs in the area. Scroll through the #TriangleTuesdays hashtag on Twitter today for more details on the latest openings. https://wraltechwire.com/2022/11/01/here-are-22-triangle-companies-that-slowed-pace-of-hiring-in-october/
Where are the jobs in the Triangle?
- Amazon: 16 job openings in the Triangle, though some roles can be done remotely, according to the company’s career page. That’s down from 59 openings a week ago, with the company announcing last week that it would pause hiring new corporate roles until 2023. In addition, Amazon is closing multiple North Carolina facilities, though a company spokesperson told WRAL TechWire that Amazon was not laying off any workers as those facilities close. Workers at an Amazon facility in Garner continue efforts to unionize including speaking with other Amazon workers in the state.
- Apple (corporate roles): 38 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page, down 23 roles from a month ago. The company will put in place a hiring freeze for corporate roles, WRAL TechWire reported last week.
- Bandwidth: 30 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page. The company will require its employees to work in-person five days per week, WRAL TechWire reported earlier this year.
- BASF: 34 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page
- BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina: 41 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page
- BD: 16 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page
- Cisco: 185 job openings in Research Triangle Park, according to the company’s career page
- Citrix: Citrix is updating their job portal website, according to the company. No data was available for this week, but there were 23 job openings in Raleigh last week, according to the company’s career page.
- Credit Suisse: 51 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page. Stock prices plunged in early October and the company is required to pay a big $234 million fine. The company has 10 fewer job openings than a month ago.
- Duke Energy: 11 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page, the same as last week.
- Eaton: 81 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to hire about 170 workers who will be based in the company’s revamped Raleigh office.
- Eli Lilly: 41 job openings in Research Triangle Park, according to the company’s career page
- Fidelity Investments: 659 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page. That’s up from 562 a week ago and is 78 openings higher than a month ago.
- FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies: 41 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page, down 17 job postings from a month ago
- Google: 313 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page, up from 260 a week ago. The company is making cuts in some areas of the company but is expected to continue to hire for the Durham engineering hub, WRAL TechWire reported earlier this year. The company is hiring for 99 more positions than it was a month ago.
- Grifols: 123 job openings in North Carolina, including in Durham and Clayton, according to the company’s career page, up from 93 open roles last week and five fewer than a month ago
- GlaxoSmithKline: 96 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page, down from 119 last week and down 22 openings from a month ago.
- IBM: 7 job opening in RTP, according to the company’s career page. That’s up from three openings last week and two openings a month ago. The company said it would continue to hire in August.
- IQVIA: 359 job openings in RTP, according to the company’s career page (down 30 openings compared to a month ago)
- Kyndryl: 73 job openings in RTP, according to the company’s career page
- Labcorp: 297 job openings in Burlington, N.C., according to the company’s career page, an increase of 25 postings from a month ago
- Lenovo: 189 job openings in Morrisville, according to the company’s career page, down 95 job openings from a month ago.
- MetLife: 119 job openings in Cary, according to the company’s career page. MetLife told WRAL TechWire recently that it planned to hire 400 workers by New Year’s Day.
- Merck: 8 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page, down 11 openings from a month ago
- Microsoft: 7 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page. The company confirmed last month that it planned to make job cuts, with some 1,000 workers affected.
- NetApp: 88 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page, down 24 job openings from a month ago.
- Novo Nordisk: 244 jobs in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page. And even more jobs could be coming to the Novo Nordisk location in Johnston County, WRAL TechWire reported in October.
- Novartis: 6 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page. The company is closing a Wilson plant.
- Pendo: 10 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page. The technology unicorn did announce there would be Pendo layoffs earlier this year totaling less than 5% of the company’s workforce, and less than two dozen employees in Raleigh affected.
- Pfizer: 117 job openings in North Carolina, according to the company’s career page
- Red Hat: 26 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page. Red Hat is owned by IBM and recently had a leadership change.
- RTI International: 126 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page, up 12 openings from last week
- SAS: 65 job openings in Cary, according to the company’s career page, down 68 openings from a month ago. Some of the available roles are remote-based positions.
- Science 37: 3 job openings that could be based in Raleigh, though some other roles are remote positions
- Sensus (Xylem): 43 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page
- Spectrum: 39 job openings in the Triangle, according to the company’s career page
- Syneos Health: 9 job openings in Raleigh, according to the company’s career page
- Toshiba Global Commerce: 104 openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page, up 43 roles from a month ago.
- Wolfspeed: 251 job openings in Durham, according to the company’s career page. The company announced a $5 billion investment that is expected to bring some 1,800 jobs to the region, as reported earlier this year by WRAL TechWire.
- Worldwide Clinical Trials: 60 job openings in North Carolina, according to the company’s careers page
Upcoming hiring event
- Carolina Startup Connect: Nov. 9 (Carolina Union). This isn’t your average college career fair. It’s designed specifically for startup companies to meet with entrepreneurial-minded students from UNC-Chapel Hill and Carolina Central Community College who have high-demand skills and a passion for working at startups.
Other resources to find Triangle job postings
If you’re a student looking for an internship or entry-level position at a local company or organization, your university has resources to help you get started. Quick links below:
For Johnston County job seekers: The recently launched JoCo Careers website helps job seekers find companies hiring in Johnston County. (More TechWire coverage here.)
Look for Triangle job postings on these Twitter accounts
Here are some locally run Twitter accounts that regularly share job openings in the Triangle:
