North Carolina’s labor market has performed well. As of June, total nonfarm employment in the state stood 11.3% above its pre-pandemic level, a performance that ranks 7th among all states. That is a strong number by any standard, and the local story:
Wilmington’s is even stronger, but slightly more complicated.
Wilmington has consistently outpaced North Carolina. Over the past four years, the metro has never ranked worse than 4th among North Carolina’s 15 metro areas in employment growth, and in 2021 and 2022, it was the fastest-growing metro in the state. Its post-pandemic average annual growth rate, 4.14%, is more than double its pre-pandemic pace of 1.9%, an acceleration exceeded by only one other North Carolina metro – Raleigh.
The area’s population has grown accordingly, from roughly 423,000 residents in 2020 to nearly 493,000 in 2025.
Where that growth is coming from adds an important qualification.
Education and Health Services has grown 72.3% in the Wilmington region since 2019, more than double the pace of any other local sector and well ahead of where healthcare employment ranks among industries statewide.
Some of that figure is real growth, and some of it is an accounting artifact. The hospital’s sale during this period moved a large block of jobs off the government payroll and onto the private Education and Health Services sector.
Government, as a result, is the only major sector in the region with negative cumulative growth since 2019, and the healthcare sector’s growth rate is correspondingly inflated by the same transaction. Even with that qualification, healthcare employment in the region is still expanding faster than any other sector, but the 72.3% figure overstates how much of that growth reflects new hiring rather than jobs that simply changed columns.
The wage data provide us with an additional lens through which we can understand the area’s evolution.
Wilmington has posted the fastest cumulative wage growth of any North Carolina metro since 2019. Its average weekly earnings rose 52%, from $742 to $1,129, with the metro currently holding the 5th-highest wage level among the state’s 15 metros.
Over the most recent 12 months, that wage growth paused, with the average weekly wage dipping 1% even as the statewide average rose 1.8%. While the recent wage growth softening is not cause for concern, it is worth noting alongside the sector composition point above.
Wage growth and employment don’t always move in lockstep, but they are both important since they give us complementary pieces of information. Wilmington’s overall position, strong job growth, strong cumulative wage growth and a wage level solidly in the upper half of the state remains a good one.
Wilmington’s growth is impressive and perhaps more importantly, it goes well beyond the tourism and construction industries the region is usually associated with. Healthcare, even after accounting for the hospital sale, is playing a significant role in that growth.
The wage picture tells much the same story, as Wilmington has the fastest cumulative wage growth in the state since 2019, and a wage level that now ranks in the top third of North Carolina’s metros. The reclassified jobs and the wage pause are footnotes to a strong run for Wilmington's labor market.
Population here is still growing faster than nearly anywhere else in North Carolina, and whether wages keep pace with that growth will say more about the region’s economy than either number does on its own.
Mouhcine Guettabi is a regional economist with UNCW’s Swain Center and an associate professor of economics at UNCW’s Cameron School of Business. He’s slated to share more details about the region’s economy Oct. 1 at UNCW’s Economic Outlook Conference, which is part of the Spark ILM event. For event details, go to sparkilm.com.
