The following article appeared in the January 28, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Charlotte’s job market: Good news for health care workers and engineers, but dimmer prospects for tech and media, economist says
If you’re looking for a job in therapy, a vet office or civil engineering, now is a good time to be in Charlotte. Online job listings in those fields have more than doubled in the past six years.
But if you’re searching for something in data and analytics, media/communications or tech, well, the prospects in Charlotte have dimmed in that same period, with sharply fewer job postings.
That’s what an analysis of job listing data from job search site Indeed reveals about Charlotte’s hiring market, according to economist Laura Dawson Ullrich, Indeed’s director of economic research.
In a talk last week to the Charlotte Economics Club uptown, Ullrich said some of the swings in job outlooks since Covid have to do with companies’ investments in artificial intelligence, as well as overhiring in some fields such as tech. That means that there are many different perceptions of how hard it is to find a job.
“If somebody has a credential to be a physical therapist, their experience is going to be completely different from somebody who wants to work in data analytics or media,” said Ullrich, who was formerly an economist with the Charlotte branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Here’s Indeed’s list of jobs in the Charlotte area that have risen the most in job postings since Covid:
Therapy +134%
Veterinary +128%
Civil engineering +113%
Dental +98%
Electrical engineering +93%
Physicians/surgeons +84%
Construction +77%
Community/social services +68%
Personal care/home health +52%
Security/public safety +40%
And here’s the list of the occupations in which job postings in the Charlotte area have fallen the most since Covid:
Data/analytics -61%
Media/communications -47%
IT systems/solutions -41%
IT infrastructure -39%
Software development -34%
Medical information -26%
Human resources -22%
Hospitality/tourism -18%
Retail -18%
Banking/finance -17%
In addition, Ullrich said:
‘Low-hire, low-fire’: Companies are generally in a “low-hire, low-fire” posture, and hiring slowed last year.
Smaller metro areas rising: The Charlotte region tends to be stronger for hiring than other parts of the country, though it has lost some of its advantage over smaller metro areas, which tend to have diversified economies. “If you go to a place like Greenville, South Carolina, or Charleston or Wilmington, these places are growing really rapidly. You can feel it,” she said. “And they’re quite diversified in their industry mix. … In the smaller MSAs [metropolitan statistical areas], job postings have been holding up better than in the largest MSAs. That holds true for Charlotte as well.”
International interest falls: The number of searches for jobs from international locations has dropped in the Charlotte region and nationally — not because companies won’t sponsor immigrants to work but because “immigrant labor is less interested in coming.” She said: “Many fewer people are kind of looking at coming to Charlotte from abroad, which is interesting.”
The Charlotte Economics Club holds monthly luncheons and other events on economic policy, business trends, regional growth issues and global economic themes. The Ledger is the club’s media partner. —Tony Mecia
🎥 Mecia talks to Ullrich about the Charlotte region job market. Check out what she had to say below or on The Ledger’s Instagram:
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