Charlotte vs. Raleigh: Who has the hotter job market?
Charlotte Business Journal
The Charlotte region's source for local business news & events. Part of the American City Business Journals network.
The dominant metros in North Carolina are in a close race when it comes to who has the hotter job market, but Raleigh tops Charlotte by a couple of spots in a new ranking.
Raleigh sits at No. 14 overall in The Wall Street Journal's annual ranking of America's hottest job markets. Charlotte comes in at No. 16, with Indianapolis sitting at No. 15.
The rankings, released April 8, put cities with growing tech and finance markets toward the top while also putting an emphasis on affordability, an attribute that is fueling the ongoing migration trend across the country.
Salt Lake City takes the top spot with its budding tech scene and high labor-force participation. Three Florida cities took spots two through four: Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. Oklahoma City comes in at No. 5.
Raleigh ranked highest for payroll change, aka job growth — sitting at fifth. Charlotte saw its top ranking in the same category, coming in at No. 10.
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The analysis looked at five areas for metros above 1 million people: average unemployment rate throughout the year; yearly labor-force participation rate; change in the average monthly employment and labor-force levels from a year earlier; and the change in average weekly wages in the first half of the year from a year earlier.
Charlotte topped Raleigh in terms of weekly wages with a ranking of 38th. it was the only category where the Queen City fared better than the City of Oaks.
Charlotte's unemployment rate ranked 25th, while its labor-force participation ranked 18th and change in labor-force size ranked 17th.
Seven of the top 10 cities on the list are in the South and Southeast, with Florida taking four spots (Miami is sixth). Dallas and Austin represent Texas in the top 10 with Seattle and Nashville, Tennessee, rounding out the group.
"The Mountain West and Sunbelt cities bucked the trend in a year marked by layoffs in the technology, manufacturing and financial sectors. Workers flocked to these areas for their plentiful job opportunities, wage growth, affordability and recreational offerings," WSJ says.
Attorney, Aspiring AARP Member
9moA diversity of great cities made the growth stories of Texas, California, and Florida possible over the last 100 years. In 1920, these states were the 5th, 8th, 32nd most populated in the country respectively. Now they are top three with North Carolina steadily rising from 14 to 9 on the strength of Raleigh and Charlotte. But that's just the beginning as Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, and Durham have all grown steadily since 1990 becoming alluring cities in their own right. A total win-win-win situation for the state and all its cities as North Carolina works its way toward top 5.