N.C. Department of Commerce’s Labor and Economic Analysis Division releases July issue of N.C. Today


The N.C. Department of Commerce’s Labor and Economic Analysis Division has released its July issue of N.C. Today:

An indicator of growing labor demand, weekly production hours in North Carolina manufacturing reached its highest level since June 2011. Average weekly hours rose by 24 minutes to a 41.7 hour average workweek in June. Total nonfarm employment rose by 5,700 jobs over the month and by 60,800, or 1.5 percent, over the year. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.8 percent in June, but fell from 9.6 percent a year ago.

Online job openings in North Carolina increased by 400 in June, according to the Conference Board. The South gained 11,400 openings in June with the majority (8,000) of the increase in Florida. Texas gained 6,000, while Georgia added 3,700, South Carolina increased by 1,000, and Virginia lost 1,600.

Nationwide, consumer confidence increased for the third consecutive month and is at its highest level since January 2008. Businesses in the Carolinas also felt more confident in June, according to the Carolinas Survey of Business Activity. Its measures of general business conditions and revenues grew for the third straight month and reached their highest levels in more than a year as expectations for business activity six months out remained high. This echoed CEOs nationwide who expected conditions over the next six months to generally become more favorable, according to The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence. June’s edition of the NCSU Index of Leading Indicators was essentially unchanged from May’s edition, so while “the North Carolina economic recovery is expected to continue… rapid acceleration in growth is not yet on the horizon,” according to Dr. Michael Walden, developer of the index.