Charlotte’s job engine kept humming last year, even as the federal government erased hundreds of thousands of jobs from the national record.
New Bureau of Labor Statistics metro data shows the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia region added 37,600 jobs from December 2024 to December 2025. That was the second-largest raw job gain among U.S. metro areas, trailing only New York-Newark-Jersey City at 48,400.
Charlotte’s growth rate also stood out. The metro posted a 2.7% increase, far stronger than New York’s 0.5%.
Only a handful of big metros saw notable gains. Beyond Charlotte and New York, the largest increases included Philadelphia (+36,400) and other top performers highlighted in the BLS release.
Those local gains landed as the national picture worsened. The BLS said employers added just 181,000 jobs in 2025, after revising its earlier estimate of 584,000.
That revision was part of the agency’s benchmark process. It reconciles monthly survey estimates with more complete state records.
The correction was also unusually large by recent standards. Reuters reported the benchmark revision cut previously reported job growth for the 12 months ending March 2025 by 862,000.
The new national data reinforces a “low hire, low fire” labor market. Hiring cooled, but unemployment held at 4.3% in January.
Charlotte’s outperformance matters locally. It signals companies still expanded payrolls here while growth stalled elsewhere. It also strengthens the region’s case for more housing, transit, and workforce pipelines as employers keep adding jobs.
