economy
Employment rate
Why this matters
The employment rate here is the employment-population ratio, the share of all people age 16 and older who actually have a job. Unlike the unemployment rate, it counts everyone in this age group, including people who have stopped looking for work, so it can reveal hidden gaps the unemployment rate misses.
A job is one of the main ways people gain income, health insurance, and a sense of stability. When more adults are employed, more households can cover their needs and contribute to the local economy. When the rate is low, it can mean limited opportunities, barriers like child care or transportation, or workers who have given up the search.
Looking at the employment rate alongside unemployment gives a clearer view of how well a community connects residents to work.
About the Charlotte region
This explorer covers the 14-county, two-state Charlotte region (11 North Carolina and 3 South Carolina counties). Many of these indicators connect to a defining regional story: a landmark Harvard study ranked Charlotte last, 50th of the 50 largest U.S. metros for economic mobility (a child raised in the poorest fifth had about a 4.4% chance of reaching the top fifth), a finding that launched the region's Leading on Opportunity agenda. Updated 2024 data show Charlotte has since climbed to 38th.
Opportunity here is also unevenly mapped. An affluent “wedge” fanning southeast from uptown holds a large majority of the city's wealth on under a quarter of its land, while a ”crescent” to the north, west, and east carries higher poverty, a legacy of redlining, exclusionary zoning, and highway routing that recurs across the race, income, health, tree-canopy, and school maps in this tool. No single indicator is good or bad on its own; together they describe how the region sorted opportunity.
Companion resources: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer · UNC Charlotte Urban Institute · Opportunity Atlas · Methods & sources
Learn more
- BLS — Employment-Population Ratio bls.gov
Measure of employed people as a share of the adult population.
- BLS — How the Government Measures Unemployment bls.gov
Defines who counts as employed, unemployed, and in the labor force.
About the data
Calculated from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2014–2024), at the Census-tract level, with margins of error. ACS 5-year vintages overlap year to year, so the series is a rolling estimate; compare only non-overlapping periods.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.