Am I Unhirable? A Tale of Functional Unemployment in North Carolina

At the end of 2023, I was laid off from my job of almost three years. “The company has had to eliminate your position due to insolvency,” the official termination letter read. 

As someone who survived the Great Recession, I was no stranger to the ins and outs of the NC unemployment system, but this time it felt different. 

I promptly started looking for work, but my prospects were never going to be great during the holiday season. So, I spent the next couple months on my Nintendo Switch, really making a dent in Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I continued to take interviews and apply for jobs but I was really just spinning my wheels. 

Early in 2024, I took a course on UI/UX product design to at the very least give myself something to do — something that could be potentially useful in the job market when things got better. Interviewers continued to tell me they’d get back to me in a month when their respective companies got a feeling for the Q1 budget so they could determine headcount. 

I graduated from the UI/UX course in early April of that year, just as my unemployment dried up. At this point, the job market seemed worse, with massive layoffs in tech making headlines, specifically in the UI/UX field but across many other sectors as well. 

I returned to work part-time in June, while still eyeing the full-time job market in my preferred fields of social media, product management and, of course, UI/UX. I’m not proud to report that a full year later, I’m still on the hunt for full-time employment. 

What do unemployment numbers really mean? 

As of April 2025, the national unemployment rate was at 4.2%. When the new numbers are released on Thursday, economists expect the number to increase by 0.1 percentage point to 4.3%, which would be the highest jobless rate since October 2021, according to CNN. 

[UPDATE: Numbers were released on Thursday, showing a decrease of 0.1 percentage point in the national unemployment rate to 4.1%.]

The North Carolina rate is reported to be at 3.7%. But these rates — the ones you see reported in headlines each month, don’t show the whole picture. 

U-3 is the official unemployment rate, counting those who are unemployed and actively seeking work, while U-6 adds a few groups such as “marginally attached workers,” or individuals who are not actively seeking work but have looked within the past 12 months. That includes “discouraged workers,” who are eligible and able to work but have stopped actively seeking employment due to a belief that no suitable job opportunities are available. 

There are also “part-time workers for economic reasons,” who are employed part-time but would rather work full-time (that would be me). The U-6 unemployment rate is at 7.8% nationwide. 

In 2022, Gene Ludwig, who served as US Comptroller of the Currency under Bill Clinton in the 1990s, told Kate Davidson of Politico, “We think it misleads the American people to say, ‘Oh, we’ve got 3.6% of America that is unemployed, ergo, a huge percent of the population is employed.” 

He referenced those who are “functionally unemployed,” people who are looking for work but don’t have a full-time job, working part-time but want full-time work, or who work but earn below the poverty line. In 2022, that accounted for 23.1% of the population within working age. 

In 2025, the Ludwig Institute says that figure is now at 23.3% nationwide, barely any change from 2022. 

In most states, unemployment benefits last for 26 weeks, or half a year. In North Carolina, the maximum length is 12 weeks unless you qualify for Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA). Victims of Hurricane Helene might be eligible, but for most people, the maximum remains at three months. Florida is the only other state with such a stringent unemployment benefit time, with South Carolina holding at 20 weeks in comparison. 

In 2013, under Gov. Pat McCrory, new NC unemployment insurance laws reduced the program from 26 weeks to 20 and brought maximum benefits from $535 per week to $350. The state also changed its policies around “good cause” reasons for leaving work, narrowing eligibility. 

Previously one could be eligible for unemployment if they filed for bankruptcy or left a job due to impending closures, spousal relocation, disability or other health concerns. As of 2013, unemployment was only available to those who were subject to layoffs, terminations, domestic violence or military spouse relocation. 

Read more: What To Know About Unemployment Insurance in North Carolina (2021)

On Feb. 27 of this year, the NC House of Representatives passed House Bill 48, which raises the weekly unemployment insurance benefit to $450. The actual benefit amount for claimants will still be based on earnings from the last two calculated quarters, with payments equaling half of their average weekly wages during that time. 

The bill received bipartisan support in the house. An amendment that would have raised maximum benefits to $600 was rejected by both parties. 

Folks who go on unemployment for three months, using up their benefits without finding a job, are not counted as unemployed, per NC law. 

“The unemployment rate is misleading,” said Rebekah Whilden of nonprofit progressive policy organization Carolina Forward. “It is ultimately held up to be a measure of how well the economy is doing. You stop looking for a job because you’ve been discouraged or rejected over and over again. You’re no longer counted as unemployed, and so that means that thousands and thousands of people are effectively invisible.” 

Looming threats of recession and AI 

Economists widely agree that we are not currently in a recession, but there are plenty of signs that we’re headed in that direction. An April 30 report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that the first quarter of 2025 saw the first American decline in GDP since 2022. A second consecutive quarter of negative growth would signal an official recession. 

All of the uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs have led to a decline in consumer sentiment, along with high fluctuations in consumer spending. Consumer spending often increases in the two quarters preceding a recession. 

Kevin Loux with Charlotte Works told WCNC in 2024, “We’ve seen, really, employers not hiring as many individuals right now.” He added that businesses were uncertain about the economy going into 2024 and were being financially conservative.

Read more: OPINION: Why a ‘Good Job’ Isn’t Good Enough (2024) 

Andrew Berger-Gross, senior economist with the NC Department of Commerce, built on Loux’s sentiment: “Most forecasters, at this point in time, predict that the economy will slow over the next year … I wouldn’t be too surprised to see the unemployment rate increase from where we are now.” 

Eighteen months from the time that story came out, we’ve gone from 3.5% to the newly reported 3.7% statewide. 

File for unemployment with the NC Department of Commerce

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in May that AI could make things worse in the job market by eliminating up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within one to five years. It is estimated that this would place the unemployment rate anywhere from 10 to 20%. He added that tech, finance, law and consulting jobs would be hit hardest by this increase in automation. 

Seeing as how these sectors are all huge in the Charlotte region, it would be beneficial if our local and state representatives were looking at this upcoming crisis seriously and figuring out how to protect at-risk workers. 

“We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming,” Amodei told Axios. “I don’t think this is on people’s radar … It’s a very strange set of dynamics … We’re saying: You should be worried about where the technology we’re building is going.” 

It’s important to note, AI company CEOs love hyping up their own product and touting how much of a disruptor this “amazing” technology will be for companies. While it is good to be skeptical of these lofty claims, Amodei warns, “Well, what if they’re right?”

Danielle Frazier, special assistant to the city manager for the Office of Workforce Development in Charlotte, discussed automation with me. 

“There may be some jobs that just go away, but [many] evolve and change,” Frazier said. “What I mean by that is you may not need someone to operate the machine anymore, but you need someone to repair it or to maintain it, or to write the code for it.

“I see the same thing in the AI space,” she continued. “Artificial Intelligence is still evolving. When I ask larger corporations, ‘What are the skill sets and what do you need?’ they say, ‘We’re still trying to figure it out.’” 

That leads us to an important question: What do we do with those who are inevitably displaced? I’m reminded of a 2016 story about coal miners who were trained in software development as their previous field became obsolete. Ten years on, what do they do when they’re replaced by AI? 

Elon Musk has warned that truck drivers will eventually lose their jobs to self-driving trucks. Of course, Musk and others like him have repeatedly promised and prophesied about the future of tech only to be proven wrong, but across all sectors, these future fears are feeling like a present reality. 

So what can be done to prepare for such change? 

“Bring job training and placement services directly to high unemployment areas,” said Whilden. “In Mecklenburg County, that could be partnering with CPCC and nonprofits to set up satellite training centers in neighborhoods like west Charlotte.

“On Eastway, offering job readiness programs, resume workshops, digital skills, GED support,” she continued. “At the same time, making sure that you offer onsite childcare and transportation assistance to reduce all of the access barriers that exist.” 

Whilden mentioned the Mayor’s Youth Employment Program, launched by Mayor Harvey Gantt in 1986, as an example of a program that has seen success and can be updated to meet present challenges, expanded and replicated.  

Voices of unemployment and under-employment

As I wrap up this piece that I started researching and reporting on months ago, I’m truthfully nowhere closer to full-time employment as I experienced it in 2023. Over the course of many conversations with friends, family and others in my network, I heard the same issues I’ve experienced firsthand come up time and time again.

Many people I spoke with preferred not to be quoted due in part to a perceived stigma of long-term unemployment or underemployment. 

“I have never had an issue finding suitable employment and have never been what would be considered ‘under-employed,’” said Daniel Beckham, who was surprised to find himself without any work for a full year from September 2023 to October 2024, when he took a job at Wells Fargo that paid 15% lower than his previous role.  

“In that span of just over 12 months of unemployment, I found the job market to be more competitive than I’ve ever experienced, as I’ve never needed longer than eight weeks or so to find the next role,” he explained. “I’m fortunate that we are a dual-income household and our debt load is light compared to others in our peer group. We were able to cut back, keep the lights on and the bankers away during this time.” 

Beckham’s sentiment mirrors a lot of others I spoke with, many of whom don’t enjoy the safety net he does in lean times. 

Read more: How My Family Is Facing Its First Unemployment Crisis (2020)

Another person who wished to remain anonymous went back to school to become a licensed therapist only to graduate into a job market that was worse than anything they had experienced. 

Speaking to me a few months after graduation, still unemployed, they said, “I couldn’t help but feel profoundly discouraged. It seems like getting your foot in the door is harder than ever.” 

It will take concerted efforts at the local, state and national levels to reform the way we look at unemployment so that the numbers reflect the reality. Only then can we properly address the issue and prepare for what’s coming.

We don’t want to end up in a place where the “discouraged” and “marginally attached” workers are the lucky ones we all strive to be.