Map showing the change in number of jobs by county in North Carolina. Sixty-four of North Carolina's 100 counties have fewer jobs now than before the Great Recession. Mecklenburg, Wake, and Durham counties account for 97 percent of the total state employment growth since the start of the Great Recession. Those three counties together have added nearly 340,000 jobs since the beginning of 2008, while no other county in the state has added more than 15,000.