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North Carolina Economic Report - 2024 First Quarter

Article by DMJPS

07.03.24

Highlights:

DMJPS is pleased to provide a statewide quarterly economic report with highlights of North Carolina’s fifteen metros for the first quarter of 2024. The state’s indicators point to overall steady but moderate growth, with churn among industry employment patterns.

• In the first quarter of 2024, North Carolina added approximately 70,000 jobs year-over-year for an average of 4.9 million employees. The state’s 1.4 percent gain was slightly less than the national 1.8 percent increase.

• At 2.6 percent, the Raleigh metro had the greatest rate of increase in employment in the first quarter when compared to the prior year. The Wilmington and Burlington metros followed closely at 2.4 percent each.

• North Carolina’s first quarter average unemployment rate of 3.7 percent was lower than the national average of 4.1 percent. Among the state’s fifteen metros, Asheville had the lowest first quarter unemployment rate at 3.0 percent while Rocky Mount had the highest at 5.0 percent.

• The Education and Health Services industry led first quarter employment growth year-over-year in North Carolina. Retail Trade estimated a first quarter loss of 1,300 jobs compared to the prior year.

• The private industry average hourly wage in North Carolina rose to $31.96 in the first quarter of 2024. The Durham-Chapel Hill metro maintained a lead with an average of $36.25. Eight of the state’s 15 metros experienced a shift down compared to the first quarter of 2023.

• At 6.7 percent, North Carolina’s same-home annual appreciation rate in the first quarter slightly outpaced the national rate of 6.3 percent.

• Average taxable retail sales in North Carolina were $55.5 billion in the first quarter, a 3.2 percent increase year-over-year.

• Special feature, educational attainment: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in North Carolina an estimated 35.9 percent of the population age 25 years and older had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2022. This was up compared to five years prior.

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OSHA Wants You to Protect Your Employees from the Heat

Article from Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete LLP

07.08.24

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, addressing “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings.” This proposed standard would apply to all employers in the general industry and construction sectors, with a few limited exceptions, such as firefighting and emergency medical services. The proposed standard attempts to codify what the Agency has been enforcing for years under the OSH Act’s General Duty Clause, which the Agency will continue to use until there is a Heat Standard in effect.

The trigger point for the proposed standard is any work activity for which employee exposure is at or above a heat index of 80^o F. The heat index refers to the National Weather Service heat index, which combines the ambient temperature and humidity. The proposed standard would not apply, however, in the case of short exposures of 15 minutes or less in any 60-minute period, or if the employee is performing only sedentary tasks indoors.

Consistent with OSHA’s existing National Emphasis Program on “Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards” and its various guidance documents on the OSHA website, the proposed standard would generally require employers to provide the following:

Access to drinking water (access to 1 quart per employee per hour),
Paid breaks in either shade or air-conditioned areas for outdoor work, or air-conditioned or ventilated areas for indoor work,
Training for employees, among other topics, about the signs and symptoms of heat-related illness and the steps to take to prevent such illness, and training for supervisors on the signs and symptoms to look out for, as well as the steps to take if they observe such signs and symptoms, and
Acclimatization for new employees, and for existing employees who have been away from work for more than 14 days. Under these provisions, employers would have to ramp up employees’ tolerance to heat by limiting their exposure to less than a full shift for the first few days of an employee’s employment or return to work. Acclimatization appears to be the most controversial part of the proposed standard, especially for employers who routinely use staffing agency workers to fill in for brief employee absences, vacations, or leaves.