Borrowing from an approach that sometimes appears in the finance sections of the popular press, LSGL analysis is a handy and versatile way to compare, portray and classify the patterns of employment growth across all of North Carolina's 100 counties. In finance, this technique is used for comparing and assessing the market performance of individual securities or across industry sectors. For example, the performance of the 30 stocks contained within Dow are compared with one another over the past week in contrast to their performance over the past month using the Dow's respective averages as the points of reference.

Here in this North Carolina Regional Economic Analysis Project report, we adopt this approach to gauge and compare the employment growth of North Carolina's 100 counties over the year (2021) against the backdrop of their growth over the long term period (2010-2021). In so doing we classify their growth and performance into 4 broad categories: Leading, Slipping, Gaining and Lagging.

This figure displays the 100 counties of North Carolina as dots on a scattergram, with the vertical axis representing the average annual employment growth rate over the long-term period (2010-2021), and the horizontal axis representing the employment growth rate for the near-term (2021).

This figure sets apart those counties whose long-term employment growth exceeded the statewide average of 1.62%, by portraying them in the top two quadrants demarcated at 1.62% on the vertical axis. County whose long-term average annual employment growth rate trailed the statewide average (1.62%) are distributed in the bottom two quadrants. In all, 21 counties surpassed the statewide average over 2010-2021, while 79 counties fell below.

Similarly, the two quadrants on the right of this figure present the positions of the 32 counties whose most recent (2021) employment growth rate exceeded the statewide average (4.35%). The two quadrants on the left feature those 68 counties whose employment growth over 2021 trailed the statewide average.

Accordingly, each quadrant portrays the performance of all 100 counties corresponding with their long-term (2010-2021) and near-term (2021) performance relative to their respective statewide averages of 1.62% over 2010-2021 and 4.35% over 2021:

Leading counties () (top-right quadrant)...are the seventeen counties whose average annual employment growth rate surpassed the statewide average both long-term (1.62%) and near-term (4.35%).

Slipping counties () (top-left quadrant)...are the four counties whose long-term average annual employment growth rate exceeded the statewide average (1.62%), but whose near-term growth has "slipped" by falling below the North Carolina average (4.35%).

Gaining counties () (bottom-right quadrant)...are the fifteen counties whose long-term average annual employment growth rate fell below the statewide average (1.62%), but whose near-term growth has "gained" by registering above the average (4.35%) statewide.

Lagging counties () (bottom-left quadrant)...are the sixty-four counties whose average annual employment growth rate fell under the statewide average both long-term (1.62%) and near-term (4.35%).

Turning attention to the top-right quadrant from the discussion above, this figure features the distribution of the North Carolina counties classified as Leading. These counties surpassed North Carolina's average annual employment growth both long-term (2010-2021 = 1.62%) as well as near-term (2021 = 4.35%). Each is identified by its corresponding ranking based on its average annual employment growth rate over 2010-2021 as noted in the table below.

Of North Carolina's 100 counties, 17 (17%) are classified within the Leading () category. Those counties ranked by their long-term average include:

This figure depicts the distribution of the 4 North Carolina counties classified as Slipping (top-left quadrant), in that their long-term average annual employment growth rate outpaced the average statewide (2010-2021 = 1.62%), while they trailed the statewide average near-term (2021 = 4.35%). Again, each county is identified by it's corresponding ranking based on its average annual employment growth rate over 2010-2021.

Only 4 ( 4%) of North Carolina's 100 counties are classified as Slipping (). Those counties ranked by their long-term average include:

This figure shows the distribution of the 15 North Carolina counties classified as Gaining (bottom-right quadrant), in that their long-term average annual employment growth rate posted below the average statewide (2010-2021 = 1.62%), while they outpaced North Carolina's average near-term (2021 = 4.35%). Again, each county is identified by its corresponding ranking based on its average annual employment growth rate over 2010-2021.

Of North Carolina's 100 counties, only 15% (15) are featured as Gaining (). Those counties ranked by their long-term average include:

This figure depicts the distributions of the 64 North Carolina counties classified as Lagging (bottom-left quadrant). These counties trailed the statewide average annual employment growth both long-term (2010-2021 = 1.62%) as well as near-term (2021 = 4.35%). Again, each county is identified by its corresponding ranking based on it's average annual employment growth rate over 2010-2021.

64% of North Carolina's counties, 64 of 100, are characterized here as Lagging (). Those counties ranked by their long-term average include: