Research Triangle hiring data, read for the people doing the hiring and the people looking for work.
Raleigh-Cary had the lowest unemployment rate of North Carolina's 15 metros in September, down from 3.2% a year earlier. Durham-Chapel Hill was close behind at 2.8%, down from 3.4%. Every county and every metro in the state saw its rate fall from August.
The statewide numbers behind it are less encouraging. By the unadjusted counts in the same release, North Carolina had about the same number of people working as a year earlier, down 310, and 31,849 fewer people counted as unemployed. The labor force was about 32,000 people smaller.2 No. 02 pointed to a shrinking labor force in the seasonally adjusted statewide numbers too.
| Indicator | Latest | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Raleigh-Cary unemploymentNC Commerce · Sep · NSA · prelim | 2.7% | Down from 3.1% in Aug and 3.2% a year earlier. Lowest of 15 N.C. metros |
| Durham-Chapel Hill unemploymentNC Commerce · Sep · NSA · prelim | 2.8% | Down from 3.3% in Aug and 3.4% a year earlier |
| North Carolina unemploymentNC Commerce · Sep · SA | 3.4% | Down 0.1 pt from Aug. October figure due Nov 20 |
| Raleigh-Cary job postingsIndeed Hiring Lab · Oct 23 · SA · private data | 110.2 | 109.5 on Oct 9. U.S. 103.7 |
| Durham-Chapel Hill job postingsIndeed Hiring Lab · Oct 23 · SA · private data | 94.2 | 94.7 on Oct 9. Feb 2020 = 100 |
| U.S. initial jobless claimsU.S. Labor Dept · week ending Oct 24 · SA | 194K | Four-week average 196,750. N.C. 2,630 (NSA) |
| U.S. job openingsBLS JOLTS · Sep · SA · prelim | 7.5M | Little changed. Hires 5.4M, quits 3.4M (rate 2.1%) |
First-time jobless claims fell to 194,000 in the week ending October 24, and the four-week average was 196,750. Continuing claims, which count people still collecting benefits, were 1.70 million the week before.3 Layoffs are still rare.
Job openings were little changed at 7.5 million in September, and hires held at 5.4 million. Quits rose to 3.4 million, 375,000 more than a year earlier, with the biggest monthly jump in restaurants and hotels. Layoffs and discharges were 1.6 million.4
Announced layoffs are also running well below last year. Employers announced 573,195 job cuts through September, down 39% from the same months of 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.5 The October count is expected November 5, the day before the October jobs report.
Johnston and Chatham counties were at 2.7% in September, and Wake, Durham and Orange at 2.8%.6 In August the Raleigh-Cary metro was at 3.1% and Durham-Chapel Hill at 3.3%.
Some of that drop is seasonal. These figures aren't seasonally adjusted, and rates often fall from August to September, so NC Commerce recommends comparing with the same month a year earlier. On that basis Raleigh-Cary is down half a point and Durham-Chapel Hill six-tenths of a point.
Job postings held steady through October. Raleigh-Cary was at 110.2 on October 23 and Durham-Chapel Hill at 94.2, both within a point of where they stood on October 9. A year ago they were at 105.8 and 92.0.7 Raleigh-Cary now ranks 26th of the 32 metros in Indeed's data that include part of North Carolina, up from 28th two weeks ago. Durham-Chapel Hill is still 31st.
Postings leveled off in October after a September climb.
Indeed job postings index, 2026, seasonally adjusted, February 1, 2020 = 100
North Carolina stands at 112.3 and Charlotte at 113.1, so both Triangle metros still trail the statewide figure and Charlotte.
No new WARN notices have been filed for the five Triangle counties since July, through the state's October 27 update. October's filings elsewhere in the state were closures or permanent layoffs, the largest from Foster in Forsyth and Pitt counties (181 workers), Pella in Rockingham County (133) and Sealy in Randolph County (114).
| Employer | Where | Affected | What we know |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTI International | RTP | ~200 | Announced Oct 1. Still not in the state WARN list as of Oct 27. |
| Asensus Surgical | Morrisville | 108 | WARN notice filed Jun 16. Effective through Mar 2027. |
| Red Storm Entertainment | Cary | 105 | WARN notice filed Mar 19, effective Sep 18. |
| Epic Games | Cary | 211 | WARN notice filed Mar 24, effective Mar 27. |
| Expansions None announced for the five Triangle counties by NC Commerce from Oct 15 to 28. Nearby, Bracco Imaging announced a $230 million plant and 200 jobs in Sanford, in Lee County. | |||
“AI is why companies are cutting jobs.”
AI is the most-cited reason for announced U.S. job cuts this year. Challenger, Gray & Christmas counted 120,136 cuts attributed to AI through September, about 21% of all announced cuts.
The other 79% gave other reasons, mainly market and economic conditions, closings and restructuring. Challenger has noted that naming AI in a layoff announcement can win over investors. In an Orgvue survey from March 2026, 32% of organizations that cut staff because of AI later had to rehire.
Bottom line. AI is a real reason at some companies and a convenient explanation at others. The productivity it brings can also go into shipping faster or offering more with the same team. Brett wrote more about this in The Great Flattening: What It Means for Founder-Led Companies.
Here's what my Job Scout found in the Triangle these last two weeks. These are senior roles, still open as of November 3, with my read on each.
I read this as COO of Lenovo's online business in all but title. Analytics, customer care and sales transformation sit under it, so show you've run more than one function.
What stood out to me is the scope at a 40-person company: the warehouse, customer support and the systems behind both. This fits someone who's built operations from scratch.
This one's about operating rhythm: the COO's priorities and follow-through across engineering and product. It fits a PMO leader who wants to sit closer to the top.
I'd look closely at the change-management piece. Getting a headquarters initiative to land in 4,000 stores is the real job here, and the posting says so plainly.
This is a start-up site, so the job is building supply chain while the plant comes online. It wants regulated pharma or biotech experience, and lots of it.
What stood out to me is the operating-model piece. They want someone to set how data work gets done across the company, on top of owning the platforms.
This one wants someone who's already run clinical trials at the program level and can speak for clinical operations on a drug-development team.
I read this as a manager-of-managers role with a cost line attached. Keeping cloud spend in check at that scale gets real weight in the posting.
This is the Scout aimed at the whole Triangle. If you'd like one aimed at you, calibrated to your background and where you're headed, with four new roles in your inbox every weekday, I'd start with a free 20 Minute Critical Path Consultation: criticalpathhq.com/connect
An unemployment rate tells you how many people are out of work. It can't tell you how long searches are taking, or how many employed people are quietly looking. The panel is how this brief will start to answer those questions, from Triangle employers and professionals directly.
Once a month, panelists answer three questions in about two minutes. Responses are anonymous and reported only in aggregate, and panelists see the results before anyone else.