Exploring Raleigh's Economic Growth: A Deep Dive into Advanced Industries

By Albert Alwang, Economic Development Director, WCED

Wake County Economic Development and Raleigh Economic Development are embarking on a process to better understand the success the region is experiencing. Together, we have hired Economic Leadership, led by Ted Abernathy, to conduct an advanced industry study to identify trends and determine impacts on regional industries.  

In 2013, the Brookings Institution identified 50 of America’s Advanced Industries*, characterized by their deep involvement with technological innovation and workers to create good jobs in dozens of high-value, high-technology fields. For our region, we currently recognize IT/Software Development, Clean Tech, Advanced Manufacturing, and Life Sciences as our core industries. More recently, the Milken Institute ranked Raleigh as the Best-Performing Large City for 2025**, notably due to the cities size and concentration of its High-Tech sector. 

Looking further in these industries, there is no surprise in terms of both the concentration and impact of the top 4 subsectors (Table 1.) for the region (Raleigh – Durham CMSA). These four industries have defined the success of the region, and include companies like FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, SAS, RTI, Red Hat, Lenovo and more. They are also some of the largest contributors to our community’s regional gross regional product (GRP; see Table 1.) While Computer and Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing has seen a recent decline in employment in the past two years, advanced industries in our region have increased by 15.2% between 2018 – 2023 (Metro Comparison Volume 5).   

It’s clear the region has seen unprecedent growth, and within these industries there has been a dramatic shift in the ways these companies conduct business and innovate. Questions arise about the implications of AI, changing federal policies, hybrid work strategies, and so on. These are some of the questions that we will seek to answer through the advanced industry study. Additionally, as WCED continues to tell the story of Wake County, Raleigh, and the Research Triangle, this study will inform our business recruitment strategies. 

The study will take place in two phases. The first includes interviews with regional business and public leaders, along with collecting and analyzing regional economic data. The second includes focus groups to review and refine the information collected from the first phase. The focus groups will be organized around regional economic priorities including large existing advanced industries, university research and development, infrastructure, community development and more. 

We look forward to sharing the results of this study. 

* 1) An industry’s R&D spending per worker must fall in the 80th percentile of industries or higher, exceeding $450 per worker and 2) The share of workers in an industry whose occupations require a higher degree of STEM knowledge must also be above the national average, or 21 percent of all workers.   

** High-Tech industry includes industries with a high concentration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (e.i., STEM) workers. 

*** Employment Concentration, also known as Location Quotient, index the regional employment compared to a national index. A number greater than 1, indicates the employment concentration is larger than the national average.