The Carolina Core region and the Piedmont Triad Partnership are celebrating May 8-12, 2023, as “Economic Development Week.” 

Loren Hill, the Carolina Core Regional Economic Development Director for the Piedmont Triad Partnership, said in a press release “During Economic Development Week, it is important to recognize our region’s local economic development professionals. They work hard to help existing companies thrive and expand while also helping to recruit new companies to the Carolina Core.”

The International Economic Development Council began celebrating Economic Development Week in 2016 in an effort to increase awareness for local programs that create jobs, advance career development opportunities, and improve the quality of life in communities everywhere. The week-long focus also serves to acknowledge the accomplishments and important work economic developers perform in their communities throughout the year.

“The Carolina Core has experienced impressive economic development momentum these last few years,” said Mike Fox, president and CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, in a press release. “In 2018 we announced the goal of creating more than 50,000 office/industrial jobs in the Carolina Core in 20 years. Just five years into that 20-year goal, more than 42,300 jobs have been announced in the Carolina Core. We are celebrating that success this week.”

To have achieved nearly 85 percent of their goal in a quarter of the time they’d expected showcases the fruitful efforts of economic developers across central North Carolina.

This number of 42,300 reflects office and industrial jobs specifically reported to the Carolina Core by their partners. Hill confirmed that they do not track jobs in industries such as retail, government or most medical jobs and this positive growth only represents a portion of the economic development happening in our communities.

A few of the organizations that employ local economic development professionals in our coverage area are the Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development Corporation, the Harnett County Economic Development Partnership and the Moore County Economic Development Partnership.

Fox added in a press release, “During this 2023 Economic Development Week, I urge our business and educational leaders, elected officials, and residents to thank our local economic developers for helping to make the Carolina Core the state’s third economic development engine.”

It’s impossible to say for certain what the future holds, but recent numbers and trends suggest continued positive growth for central North Carolina.

“What we do know is, [most of] our local economic developers are telling us that they continue to be as busy as they possibly can be. I’ve been in the business 25 years and certainly, they’ve been the busiest the last year…to have that much client activity tells you there's still a whole lot of interest in companies wanting to either expand here or come here for the first time. We’re still seeing amazing interest in us,” remarked Hill.