Onslow County's unemployment higher than state, nation, still considered full employment

As Labor Day approaches, the Onslow County market is holding strong in some areas, while struggling in others.

Labor Day is on Monday and is a national holiday honoring and recognizing the American labor movement. The current unemployment rate in Onslow County is 4.7%, higher than both the state, 3.4%, and national average, 3.5%, according to NCWorks.

But as inflation and interest rates rise across the country, how is Onslow matching up?

"Some folks, not that I know of in our industries, but some big companies are dialing back on hiring," said Jacksonville-Onslow Economic Development Executive Director Mark Sutherland. "The tempo of hiring, nationally, is down because of interest rates going up. Companies aren't borrowing as much money, they're not investing in expanding their production capacity, so that's to be expected nationally. I haven't seen that locally."

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Wage expectations, who are in need most?

Onslow County is on the low end of average weekly wage, according to NCWorks, at an average of $854 a week. Currently, there are 2,409 job openings in Onslow with 2.79 candidates available per opening.

Express Employment Professionals Jacksonville Franchise Owner Cowanda Bazile said wage expectations are a huge issue right now, specifically because of the cost of talent, cost of supplies, and availability of workers.

"The Labor Force Participation Rate is still low, and not enough people have come off the sidelines to meet the demands of our continually growing economy," Bazile said. "Inflation has squeezed the labor market even more. Workers are not willing to travel as far and are asking for much higher pay. For clients who are unwilling to offer more money, turnover and inability to hire is hurting production."

NCWorks Career Center Manager Lindsay Gress said there are always fluctuations in unemployment rates and there are many factors that go into that. However, anything under 5% is typically considered full employment. That said, Onslow County has been at full employment since September of last year.

"However, we know we still have job seekers coming in on a daily basis," Gress said. "What is existing is a skills gap. So, you may have 50 teacher positions available or nursing positions available, but the job seekers don't have those exact qualifications to meet those needs."

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Gress said because of that, NCWorks is trying to match up skills to the vacancies, or at least direct candidates to education training and credentialing opportunities that could get them to where they need to be for the open positions.

As of August 26, the top five employers currently in need of employees, according to NCWorks, are Onslow County Schools, with 252 openings; Onslow Memorial Hospital with 68 openings; Food Lion with 41 openings; Barnhill Contracting Company with 33 openings; and RQ Construction, LLC with 27 openings.

"We have not seen a slowing of jobs being posted yet," Gress said. "We have not seen an impact from our employers."

Sutherland said he doesn't know anybody in Onslow County that has said they are good to go on labor. However, he did say most of the needs aren't big. He emphasized that one of the big problems is inflation, as many jobs have increased wages, but that increase is masked by inflation.

There are resources available

With job seekers and employers both struggling to fill those holes, Onslow County does have resources to help.

"There are so many different programs," Gress said. "Think about the untapped labor force, our transitioning service members that are staying local, our family members, military spouses, justice-involved individuals who are reentering the community. They come with so many skills, knowledge and abilities."

Sutherland said one of the biggest resources for transitioning service members is the Skillbridge program.

The Skillbridge program allows local employers to market their opportunities directly to service members. With an average of 7,800 service members leaving the military out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River each year, the program can help them to find good local jobs. Gress agreed that becoming an industry partner with Skillbridge is huge.

"When it comes to economic development, some people will say, 'well we're just a have-not when it comes to that, we don't have an interstate, we don't have a rail, we don't have natural gas everywhere in the county,'" Sutherland said. "But I concentrate on the assets, what do we have? We have a lot of assets here, and one of them is the labor pipeline that is transitioning service members, and we've got it in spades."

'There is no going back': Onslow's labor market struggles heading into summer

Other resources include Coastal Carolina Community College, whom Sutherland said is the A-team when it comes to helping raise the workforce for incoming city and county projects.

The problem is, Gress said she hears so many job seekers say they've been applying and applying but not hearing anything back.

"I encourage all job seekers, you have free resources available," Gress said. "Whether it's NCWorks or going to the community college, or the different resources available if they're militarily affiliated. Connect, get more cheerleaders, essentially, in your corner, in your network, and the community that is helping you through the process, because it can be very overwhelming."

She recommends employers do the same thing, encouraging businesses to use NCWorks as a free resource, reach out to their networks and get the word out as much as possible so that they can connect the talent that's out there to the jobs that are available.

Bazile said Express Employment helps job seekers connect with employers that will fit their needs, and talents, so that's another available resource. She said with the labor market being so tight, quickly interviewing candidates and making job offers is the difference between life and death for many businesses.

"With two open positions for every unemployed person, there simply are not enough job seekers to fill every position, so businesses need to partner with reputable staffing companies to help bridge the gap and find the right talent — fast," Bazile said. "Great news for job seekers, companies have started their seasonal hiring."

She added that with rising inflation, it's a great time to capitalize on incentive hiring to make more money to offset rising costs.

According to a new study from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment, Bazile said four in five U.S. hiring decision-makers say their company is taking steps to make hiring easier. This includes everything from offering higher starting salaries to hiring bonuses.

More than a quarter report they are offering remote work, and better benefits. Another one in five says their company is expanding the geographic area where they advertise open positions, offering more internships, and/or reducing qualification criteria.

"Not all businesses can offer everything job seekers desire for employment, but oftentimes, reasonable pay and benefits coupled with a healthy work environment will attract the right workers at the right time," Bazile said.

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: How is Onslow County's labor market heading into Labor Day?