North Carolina's labor market ended 2016 on a strong note. Total employment in the state hit 4,360,200 jobs in December, up two percent from the December 2015 figure
Published: Tuesday, January 31st, 2017 @ 2:43 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Is the full picture of our labor market captured in the official unemployment rate?
Published: Monday, August 8th, 2016 @ 11:24 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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While North Carolina's unemployment rate currently stands at just under 6 percent, some argue that problems in the state's labor market are worse than that one statistic would indicate.
Published: Monday, October 12th, 2015 @ 2:26 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Justin Wolfers, a University of Michigan economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote a piece for The New York Times a couple of weeks ago that was partly a response to a previous piece I wrote for The Wall Street Journal about North Carolina’s recent drop in unemployment.
Published: Thursday, August 14th, 2014 @ 9:18 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The next time you see or hear a politician, policy analyst, activist, or journalist say that North Carolina’s unemployment rate has fallen “largely” because of workers dropping out of the labor force, ask for a definition of the term.
Published: Monday, July 7th, 2014 @ 8:02 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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If all you know about North Carolina's recent economic performance is what you get from Twitter feeds, partisan press releases, or brief mentions on television newscasts, then much of what you "know" is flat wrong.
Published: Thursday, May 15th, 2014 @ 7:26 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Under the Bureau of Labor Statistics definition, discouraged workers are those who would otherwise be in the labor force but have gone so long without finding a job that they have stopped looking. According to critics of North Carolina's July 2013 exit from extended benefits under the...
Published: Saturday, January 18th, 2014 @ 2:22 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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According to liberal critics of Gov. Pat McCrory and the leadership of the General Assembly, the state should be losing its attraction as a place to do business. Our economy should be suffering from inadequate demand, thanks to state budget cuts. The passage of the marriage amendment and abortion...
Published: Tuesday, December 10th, 2013 @ 2:43 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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That's one way to interpret the current trend of the Index of North Carolina Leading Economic Indicators. Produced every month by N.C. State University economist Michael Walden, the index combines five indicators that tend to correlate with economic growth over time: initial unemployment-insurance c
Published: Friday, August 16th, 2013 @ 3:19 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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"Great News on Jobs" crowed The Washington Post. The government reports that 236,000 jobs were "created" in February and the unemployment rate fell from 7.9 to 7.7 percent.
Published: Sunday, March 10th, 2013 @ 9:47 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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Has North Carolina's economy turned the corner? It depends on how you define "turn the corner." And it depends on what measure you choose.
Published: Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 @ 8:09 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Here in North Carolina, the debate about proposed changes to the unemployment-insurance system have prompted left-wing analysts to ridicule the notion that the amount and duration of UI benefits have an effect on the propensity for jobless recipients to accept employment offers.
Published: Monday, January 14th, 2013 @ 11:51 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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It's about time for New Year's resolutions. My recommendation for North Carolina politicians of all stripes is to resolve to focus their attention, rhetoric, and legislation on reducing the ranks of the unemployed.
Published: Wednesday, December 19th, 2012 @ 7:51 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina's unemployment rate has been 9.4 percent for the past three months. That statistic certainly helps to identify our labor market as one of the weakest in the country.
Published: Saturday, August 4th, 2012 @ 6:28 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina's unemployment rate fell in April by three-tenths of a point, to 9.4 percent. Good news? Not really.
Published: Thursday, May 24th, 2012 @ 2:49 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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