The Lead Feed

LEAD recently unveiled a new online resource called NC TOWER (Tool for Online Workforce and Education Reporting), which provides data on employment rates, wages, and higher education enrollment for graduates of the North Carolina Community College System and University of North Carolina system schools.

The unemployment rate is the most cited and least understood official indicator of labor market conditions. This post takes on some common myths and explains what the unemployment rate really tells us about the state of the economy.

The Labor & Economic Analysis Division (LEAD) is happy to launch the LEAD Feed, which will deliver timely communication and analysis around a variety of economic and labor market topics drawing on the knowledge and expertise of LEAD staff. It is our goal to meet the need for a timely, accessible means of communication for short, informative articles about economic and labor conditions in our state, the nation, and around the world.

North Carolina pork producers were making significant gains in exporting to Russia in early 2014 as they complied with new trade restrictions. But yet another import ban on U.S. and E.U. agricultural products could derail that progress.

Are traditional brick-and-mortar storefronts becoming a thing of the past? If you’re a reader of the Wall Street Journal, you may have recently run across news headlines like these proclaiming the demise of traditional retailers: Shoppers Are Fleeing Physical Stores, The Great Mall Exodus, and Macy’s Confronts the Crisis of the American Mall. So is this true? And more importantly, is this happening in North Carolina?