‘Dedicated and diverse’: Business is booming in North Carolina, thanks to the workforce

What makes Charlotte and North Carolina so attractive to companies? According to North Carolina Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley, you can give credit to the state’s workforce.

Just this week, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein announced two corporate investments in the Charlotte area worth $25 million, and they’ll create about 750 new jobs.

Lilley says there’s a good reason more companies are moving here.

“It’s the ability to be able to provide a workforce that’s well trained, dedicated and diverse to a range of different companies,” Lilley said. “Everything from white collar talent to really highly trained blue collar talent, and that comes from a really excellent workforce and education system that partners together to produce that talent.”

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Lilley says he and Gov. Stein want to create quantifiable goals for improving workforce training, like doubling the number of apprenticeships in the state. He says Charlotte is attractive because it has great industrial sites and trained workers nearby to meet companies’ needs.

“If they need an engineer, we want to have a great engineer for them,” Lilley said. “But most of what they need probably are excellently trained technicians, manufacturing experts, and those are skills that you can learn through the community college system, and we have one of the best in the country. There are 58 different locations, none more than 30 minutes from any single North Carolinian.”

Schools like Central Piedmont Community College work with companies to develop the training they need.

Lilley says jobs that require a credential can pay just as much as those that require a degree.

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“We need welders, electricians, HVAC, technicians, plumbers. These are trades that we already don’t have enough of, and we have a retiring, aging population who really fills a lot of those. And those are really great jobs. They pay a lot of money,” Lilley said.

Finally, there’s a new special mission for the commerce department. Lilley says diversifying Western North Carolina’s economy beyond tourism is a top priority.

“We’re probably underrepresented in that area for manufacturing, those really durable manufacturing jobs that create great wages, and because of the investment, are hard to move around,” Lilley said. “We just got to look a little harder and work a little closer with our local communities to do that.”

North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons praised North Carolina’s reputation for business.

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“The trajectory our state is on — with a focused General Assembly implementing low taxes, public safety, and school choice, leading our Family First agenda — makes North Carolina the best state in the nation to live, work, and retire,” Simmons told Channel 9.

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