2024 Employer Needs Survey Finds Fewer NC Businesses With Hiring Difficulties

LEAD has surveyed businesses across North Carolina every two years since 2014 on behalf of the state’s NCWorks Commission, with a particular emphasis on hiring challenges, recruitment and retention, and other business needs. We recently published a report as well as an interactive dashboard displaying the results of the most recent survey, carried out in the winter of 2023 and early 2024. The survey found that the percentage of businesses reporting hiring difficulties has fallen from 81 percent of employers who tried to hire in 2021to 62 percent of employers in 2023, a level closer to the pre-pandemic level of 56 percent.

Since 2014, the number of jobseekers per job opening in the state has generally declined, making it harder for employers to find talent while generally providing more opportunity for jobseekers to find a job. In the past year this ratio has crept back up as the labor market has weakened, perhaps explaining why employers are not having as much trouble as they did following the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. While longer-term demographic trends may keep this ratio lower than it has been in the past, a future recession could also push this ratio higher as large numbers of unemployed individuals seeking a dwindling number of open positions.

When asked about the reasons for hiring difficulties for entry level positions in the past year, the most frequently chosen reasons were a lack of basic employability skills (such as work ethic, professionalism, reliability and motivation) as well as a low number of applicants. Employers trying to hire for more experienced positions most frequently pointed to a low number of applicants as well as a lack of relevant work experience as the top reasons for difficulty. The survey also captured the importance of technical and soft skills, issues with low pay, and other barriers to employment such as transportation and childcare issues.

There is much more to explore in the dashboard and report, including results for specific industries such as Manufacturing, Construction, Health Care, and STEM businesses, as well as opportunities for the state to better support employers as they seek to grow their businesses and hire and retain talent.