North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper recently announced that there were 24,224 new jobs created in North Carolina last year. 

These new jobs represent 185 business recruitments, expansions or rural development projects that are correlated to the North Carolina Department of Commerce or the Economic Development Partnership of N.C.

The jobs are predicted to bring an estimate of $10.1 billion dollars in capital investments to the state, making this the new all-time high for performance in economic development.

Top projects for the year that had the most job creations included:

Apple’s selection of the Research Triangle for a major research and development campus that will create 3,000 jobs. 

Toyota’s decision to build its first North American plant to produce batteries for electric vehicles near Greensboro, creating 1,750 jobs.

FUJIFILM Diosynth building, the largest end-to-end biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in North America, creating 725 jobs. 

The majority of the economic development projects located or expanded in more rural or economically distressed areas – 71 percent in fact – were subjected to Tier 1 or Tier 2 counties. Fifty-three percent of those projects involved companies that chose to expand an existing operation.

Locally, Champion Home Builders chose Robeson County for a production site that resulted in the creation of 225 jobs in Pembroke.  

Additional jobs that were created with rural development grants were managed by the Rural Economic Development Division. This allowed for 3,235 new jobs that were supported by $28.4 million dollars in grants.