North Carolina’s economy ranks as the 10th largest in the county at just under $439 million in 2015. The state seems poised to continue growing, as its growth currently outpaces the national average. This LEAD Feed article explores what GDP measures, why it is important, and examines the state’s GDP from several angles.
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The General Assembly recently authorized a new form of crowdfunding in North Carolina, which is intended to help businesses and entrepreneurs better access capital. In this post, we explain what crowdfunding is and why it matters to our state’s businesses (and investors).
Which of North Carolina’s regions offer the best prospects for jobseekers? This article assesses the supply and demand for labor within each of North Carolina’s eight “Prosperity Zone” regions.
North Carolina continues to be an important state for the military and for veterans. This entry shares some of the most recent North Carolina statistics on veterans from the American Community Survey.
We may think of crowdfunding as a recent phenomenon, but North Carolinians have been using community-financing to create businesses since the late-1800s. This post highlights a video about what became known as the Cotton Mill Campaign.
North Carolina’s labor force participation rate has declined considerably over the past 16 years. This article shows how the changing demographics of our population have contributed to this trend.
With October being National Disability Employment Awareness Month, LEAD decided to take a look at the state of disability employment in North Carolina.
Is it better to focus efforts on acquiring academic credentials or skills if you’re working toward building a good-paying career? The answer, not surprisingly, is both. However, when we control for skills, the wage returns for occupations requiring higher education and experience are reduced by anywhere from a third to two-thirds. This demonstrates that skills are indeed a significant determinant of occupational wages in North Carolina; quantifies the linkage between education and skills; and highlights the importance of skill development at all education levels.
North Carolina is projected to add over 550,000 jobs by 2024. The following summary analyzes information on employment growth and projections at the state level for the 2014-2024 period and provides key findings by major industry and occupational groups.
It is common to see averages and medians used to analyze wages and compare them between occupations, but those measures don’t tell the whole story in understanding what employees are paid. What about the range of wages among employees who share an occupation? Looking at OES data, we see that workers in some occupational groups are paid within a wide range of wages, while employees in other occupations tend to make relatively similar wages.
Something is clearly wrong with our labor market when unemployed jobseekers are unable to find work amidst a flood of job vacancies. Is this a sign of mismatch in the marketplace? Or might there be other forces at work? This article introduces several new metrics to help you understand the state of mismatch in North Carolina and the areas of greatest need in our labor market.
Young firms play an important role in the dynamism of North Carolina’s economy. However, their contribution to overall job creation has fallen substantially in recent years. As part of LEAD’s ongoing investigation into declining economic dynamism, this article identifies some of the industry sectors hit hardest by this trend and discusses the implications for our broader economy.
Two researchers recently published new data on contingent work across the U.S. labor market. This new information helps us better understand the rise in nontraditional work arrangements and highlights the impacts of employers like Uber through the so-called “gig economy.”
Significant differences in economic wealth exist among North Carolina’s counties. No one will debate this. But the data that are selected and its interpretation are critical to identifying the differences in economic success. This article briefly discusses the value of data selection – specifically, the differences between wages and income. Understanding data is critical to identifying problems and potential solutions.
New and rapidly-growing businesses account for much of the job creation occurring in North Carolina. This article assesses the importance of new and “high-growth” firms and how their recent troubles threaten the economic dynamism of our state.