Despite nationwide concerns over the job market, North Carolina’s economy has remained strong, and requires 5,000 to 10,000 more degrees each year from North Carolina universities, according to a report from the University of North Carolina System.
The “Workforce Alignment Report,” published in mid-April, found that the state isn’t graduating enough students in several key industries like engineering, health care and education. Vice President for Strategic Initiatives for the UNC System Mary Varghese said that these key industries make up a chunk of the gap of 5,000 to 10,000.
“We actually need to grow across many different degree programs, and I think that’s unique to our state, because our state is growing in so many different industries,” Varghese said.
North Carolina has seen rapid growth over the past few years, with the Raleigh metro area being the 10th fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation between July 2024 and July 2025, according to U.S. Census data. Census data also showed that more people in the country are moving to North Carolina than any other state with 84,000 people moving in from July 2024 to July 2025. Because of this, demand in many industries in the state has increased.
The report, which analyzed degrees from both public and private universities in the state, found that there is a demand of 3,966 degrees in nursing with a gap of 806, factoring in the degrees that North Carolina puts out. The report reveals that there is an even wider gap in education which is about 1,439, and a gap of 2,662 degrees in engineering. The highest demand was for mechanical engineering degrees.
Chair of the Nursing Department at Elon University Cathy Quay said the shortage in nurses largely stems from many nurses approaching retirement age and because of the barriers to nursing education. Quay said these shortages have real impacts on patients.
“Literature shows that when hospitals are fully staffed, when they have bachelor-prepared nurses at the bedside, that patients do better,” Quay said. “If we’re going to address this, it can’t just be on an institutional level. It really has to be upstream, and thinking about what policies do we need in place to ensure that nurses have access to education.”
Elon’s nursing program has been steadily growing since 2021 with a 57.1% increase in enrollment between 2024 and 2026, according to the spring registrar’s report. Quay said they have been careful to grow the program while making sure to not compromise the quality of the education. Quay said that they are bringing in more faculty members and expanding their lab space. She said there are still barriers that they have to navigate through, like the lack of nurse educators and limited clinical sites.
Quay said it is vital for Elon to step up and meet this demand because of the impact nurses have.
“We are the ones at the bedside, we’re the ones that provide the care,” Quay said. “We’re the ones that listen to our patients. We’re the ones that really keep the healthcare system running.”
Elon’s engineering program has also seen steady growth recently, according to Scott Wolter, the chair of the Engineering Department. Wolter said that the enrollment will exceed 200 students next year. A big step in the department’s growth will come in fall 2026 when Elon launches the School of Engineering and Computing, which is currently conducting a dean search. He said that North Carolina has a big need for technology jobs and that educated engineers will be needed to fill them.
“As our society advances, that technology is more advanced. So you need specialized skills. We provide broad skills like basic math, chemistry, physics and some basic engineering course skills,” Wolter said. “But then our students can go into specific disciplines of study. So they’re ready to jump into an engineering position that fits the needs for today.”
Wolter said the department has put a big emphasis on recruitment in the past few years. They have done this through spreading the news about Elon to K-12 schools, hosting an engineering open house on Homecoming Weekend and the launching of an engineering fellows program that allows the school to be somewhat competitive with state school tuition.
North Carolina has focused on improving access to engineering and nursing degrees in the UNC System in recent years. The UNC System invested $29 million in 2024 to expand nursing programs at 12 universities, and the state General Assembly invested $125 million to expand engineering programs.
For degrees that are facing waning student interest, such as education, Varghese said they need to think about what can universities do to keep students in an education degree at a time when many are hesitant about going into it. She said this can be accomplished through loans, additional financial aid and paid teaching hours when students are training for their license.
But Varghese said the report calls for action from both public and private universities.
“It’s not only just a road map for the UNC System, but I think of it as we walk alongside public and privates together to tackle a state issue, right? Because there’s no way that one can do it on its own,” Varghese said.
Varghese said private universities can also help make up the gap for degrees not awarded at public universities and help fill degree gaps in areas like theological vocations. Kathie Sidner, director of workforce and partnerships at the UNC System, pointed towards JetZero wanting to bring more than 14,000 jobs to the state as an example of how both publics and privates will need to work together to supply those jobs.
Looking ahead, Wolter said the job market of engineers in North Carolina is in a good place.
“It’s a good place to be at, to be in a position where we need to produce more educated engineers, rather than the other way around,” Wolter said. “It’s good for all our programs, state schools and private schools.”
Quay said she has a lot of ideas for how the nursing program at Elon can grow in the future, including increasing their use of simulations, growing community partnerships and exploring additional programs like graduate programs.
Varghese and Sidner said that they want this report to signify hope amid lots of economic unrest. Sidner said that North Carolina is growing and that provides a lot of access and opportunities in the future for students.
“My hope is that this provides a more hopeful message to students that are graduating and about to graduate, that this too shall pass and a college degree — as we have seen through our own research, but also a lot of other studies have shown — that it provides a resiliency factor to be able to weather future labor market disruptions, economic change, to be able to change jobs or even industries,” Sidner said.