RALEIGH – With unemployment at historic lows [4 percent in March] and the hunt for talent as cutthroat as ever North Carolina is stepping up to offer some support.

The answer: a re-booted NCCareers.com that will serve as a one-stop shop for students and business owners alike on career information and labor market data.

Expected to launch this fall, the system will be tailored specifically to North Carolina’s job market and workforce, and will include information from researching wages and best occupations for skill sets, to finding specific labor market information and training resources.

“Everyone needs reliable information to make informed education, training and career decisions,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “NCCareers.org will help close the career information gap, providing people with the knowledge to make smarter career choices that will help put more money in their pockets.”

Highlights include:

  • A “comprehensive web portal as well as print and mobile-friendly tools”
  • Careeer information tools “tailored to the unique contours of North Carolina and its education and workforce development programs”
  • Help user “explore many aspects of planning a career, from researching the wages needed to reach various lifestyle levels”
  • A search for “the best occupations to match one’s interests, values and skills”
  • Finding “specific labor market information and training resources”

The news comes the same week WRAL TechWire reported a surge in high-tech job openings across North Carolina.

High-tech job openings surge across NC to more than 31,000

In March, more than 31,000 high-tech job openings were posted – a huge 40 percent jump over the same month in 2018 and the highest figure reported to date in the report from the NC Technology Association.

Green Resources, a talent management firm that sponsors the NC Tech report, described the competition for IT workers as a “war for talent.”

It’s left many business owners and companies scrambling to find workers, with some job openings remaining unfilled for months.

Among those who collaborated to bring about the new portal are the Department of Commerce’s Labor & Economic Analysis Division (LEAD), the North Carolina Community College System, the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) and its Vocational Rehabilitation unit, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the University of North Carolina System, NC State Education Assistance Authority as well as the Workforce Solutions Division at the Department of Commerce.

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