Research Triangle hiring data, read for the people doing the hiring and the people looking for work.
Tied with Asheville for the lowest rate of any metro in North Carolina, and more than a full point under the national 4.2%.2 The catch is that it sits inside a national market where almost nobody is moving. Quits are running at 1.9%, and people who lose a job are taking longer to land the next one.
| Indicator | Latest | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Raleigh-Cary unemploymentNC Commerce · Aug · NSA · prelim | 3.1% | Down 0.1 pt from July |
| Durham–Chapel Hill unemploymentNC Commerce · Aug · NSA · prelim | 3.3% | Down 0.1 pt from July |
| North Carolina unemploymentNC Commerce · Aug · SA | 3.5% | Down 0.4 pt from a year ago |
| U.S. payroll jobs addedBLS · Sep · SA · first estimate | +29K | Prior two months revised down 60K |
| U.S. hires rateBLS JOLTS · Aug · SA | 3.3% | Quits 1.9%, openings 7.1M |
| Raleigh-Cary job postingsIndeed Hiring Lab · Oct 2 · SA · private data | 108.3 | Up from 103.9 in early September. U.S. 103.8. Feb 2020 = 100 |
September added 29,000 jobs and unemployment rose to 4.2%. Federal Reserve economists now describe a low-hire, low-fire market. Layoffs are low and quits are low, and people who lose a job take longer to find the next one. The Chicago Fed attributes about 80% of the rise in unemployment since early 2023 to slower job finding, with about 20% coming from more people losing jobs.3
The first jobs number keeps getting revised down
U.S. payroll gains in thousands, first reported and current estimate
July was first reported as a gain of 21,000 and now stands as a loss of 10,000. September's first estimate gets its second look on November 6.4
North Carolina's unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in August, from 3.9% a year earlier. Part of that drop came from people leaving the labor force. The state counted 47,152 fewer employed people than a year ago while unemployment also fell.5 Some of the improvement comes from fewer people in the count rather than more people at work.
WARN notices are layoffs employers must file in advance. A filing signals intent, and final numbers often come in lower. No new WARN notices were filed for the five Triangle counties in the 30 days through the state's October 2 update.
| Employer | Where | Affected | What we know |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTI International | RTP | ~200 | Announced Oct 1. About 120 in N.C., phased over three months. Not in the state WARN list as of Oct 2. |
| Red Storm Entertainment | Cary | 105 | WARN notice filed Mar 19, effective Sep 18. |
| Asensus Surgical | Morrisville | 108 | WARN notice filed Jun 16 as Karl Storz winds down the Senhance and Luna robots. Effective through Mar 2027. |
| Epic Games | Cary | 211 | WARN notice filed Mar 24, effective Mar 27. |
| Expansions Tracked from NC Commerce and EDPNC announcements starting with No. 02 | |||
“Andreessen Horowitz said it this week: everyone is hiring.”
Small, well-funded teams are competing hard for experienced people. Carta counted January 2026 startup hiring 65% below its 2022 peak, average Series B headcount fell from 53 to 45, and equity grants for AI and ML engineers rose 31%.
The line is the headline of an a16z job-listings newsletter from September 28, with no market data behind it. The whole U.S. economy added 29,000 jobs in September, and the hires rate is 3.3%.
Bottom line. Accurate for a narrow slice of funded startups, and inaccurate as a description of the market.
Most of this brief comes from national and state sources. What's missing is what Triangle employers and professionals are actually seeing: how long searches take, which roles are hardest to fill, whether hiring plans are shifting.
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