North Carolina listed among states struggling to hire new workers, says study
The U.S. job market is recovering after millions of people lost their jobs during the pandemic, but some states are struggling more than others — including the Carolinas.
In an analysis by WalletHub, South Carolina and North Carolina are among the top 15 states struggling the most in hiring.
“A lot of people left the workforce during the pandemic, whether voluntarily via renegotiated life priorities, or involuntarily due to childcare constraints, illness, or even death,” said Dr. Maura Mills, a University of Alabama professor who used as an expert for the study. “That pattern has the potential to leave more open positions than candidates to fill them, which naturally can create increased difficulty in filling those positions.
In order to gauge the state-by-state comparison, WalletHub compiled the list based on the rate of job openings for both the latest month and the last 12 months.
South Carolina was sixth on the list and North Carolina ranked No. 13.
Since the COVID shutdown, businesses in several industries have been heavily impacted by the labor shortage, causing delays in services and reduced business hours.
“Employees are expecting more from their work lives in terms of work-life balance, flexibility, and personal well-being and are less willing to be overworked,” Mills explained. “This, however, has not meshed well with employers’ simultaneously increasing expectations for employee workloads and demands. The natural result of these increasingly mismatched expectations is higher turnover rates.”
In order to gauge the state-by-state comparison, WalletHub compiled the list based on the rate of job openings for both the latest month and the last 12 months.
States where employers are struggling the most in hiring
Rank | State | Job opening rate (latest month) | Job opening rate (last 12 months) |
1 | Alaska | 7.60% | 8.99% |
2 | Georgia | 7.90% | 7.83% |
3 | West Virginia | 7.50% | 8.01% |
4 | Louisiana | 7.50% | 7.70% |
5 | Virginia | 7.20% | 7.52% |
6 | South Carolina | 7.10% | 7.38% |
7 | Arkansas | 7.30% | 6.91% |
8 | Maryland | 7.20% | 7.08% |
9 | Montana | 6.70% | 7.78% |
10 | Colorado | 7.00% | 7.13% |
11 | Delaware | 7.00% | 7.11% |
12 | Tennessee | 6.90% | 7.21% |
13 | North Carolina | 6.90% | 7.09% |
14 | Pennsylvania | 7.00% | 6.68% |
15 | Mississippi | 6.70% | 6.89% |
Labor outlook in the Carolinas
According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the state’s adjusted unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in March. In South Carolina the unemployment rate, was 3.2 percent.
Across the country, unemployment claims rose by 5,000 to 245,000 last week, but this is still low by historic standards, the Associated Press reported.
The national unemployment rate dropped 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.5 percent last month.
