The Labor Market Information (LMI) Division of the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina regularly prepares employment projections by industry and occupation reflecting employment growth and trends for statewide and numerous substate areas. The projection program consists of three phases. The first phase entails developing industry level employment estimates for the base year and employment projections for the target year. The second phase involves collection and analysis of employment data on staffing pattern generated by the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program through three-year round of occupational surveys. In the final phase, the staffing patterns developed working on phase two are applied to the industry estimates developed in phase one to produce current employment estimates and projected employment needs for about 800 occupations.

For the current projection cycle, occupational employment data is now available for the base year 2006, and projections for the year 2016, reflecting changes across industries and occupations.