Wegovy maker, solar panels, and a warehouse: NC’s 5 biggest jobs announcements of 2024

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the obesity treatment Wegovy in June 2021, and fueled by word-of-mouth buzz and social media vitality, this once-a-week injectable is today among America’s most popular medicines. According to the manufacturer, Danish insulin maker Novo Nordisk, around 25,000 people in the U.S. start taking it each week.

Wegovy’s billion-dollar rise has kept Novo Nordisk’s facility in Johnston County active. The site produces significant amounts of the weight-loss drug, sources familiar with the operation have told The News & Observer.

Last week, Novo Nordisk announced a major expansion to its 31-year-old North Carolina site, committing $4.1 billion to open 1.4 million additional square feet of manufacturing space between 2027 and 2029. Once complete, the project is expected to create 1,000 jobs at the new facility, which is being built just southeast of downtown Clayton.

Company leaders say the future facility will be capable of manufacturing weight-loss drugs (in addition to Wegovy, Novo Nordisk also makes the trendy weight-loss shot Ozempic), as well as insulin shots and any yet-to-be-released treatments. Construction on the site has already begun, and on June 24, Johnston County approved $206 million in corporate incentives over the next dozen years should Novo Nordisk fulfill its promises.

Though it’s easy to bet on the company making Wegovy, historically, many sizable economic projects in North Carolina never achieve their initial hiring or investment targets. Headlines stir excitement but then the efforts tend to end years later with little progress.

However, plenty of economic developments in the Tar Heel State do succeed — or at least get part of the way to their original goals.

This year’s biggest jobs news has been “overwhelmingly industrial,” said Christopher Chung, CEO of the state’s top business recruitment organization, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. As for what’s in the pipeline, he said the state is pursuing investments including manufacturing, food processing and fulfillment operations.

Chung noted the average size of projects in 2024 has been smaller compared to recent years but in terms of projected job creation, the state is “ahead of where we were at this same point last year.”

Entering the second half of 2024, let’s recap the five biggest North Carolina jobs commitments of the year so far. Novo Nordisk’s expansion tops the list. Three foreign-based companies and one from California complete it.

Boviet Solar, 908 jobs

Based in Vietnam but a subsidiary of a Chinese conglomerate, Boviet Solar in April said it will invest $294 million and create 908 jobs at a future solar panel facility in the Eastern North Carolina city of Greenville. It would be the company’s first U.S. production site and average wages will be at least $52,879, according to incentive deal it entered with the state.

If Boviet reaches its investment and hiring goals by 2028, it will receive $8.3 million in state payroll tax benefits. The city and Pitt County combined to offer the company another $18 million.

About 80 miles east of Raleigh, Greenville is home to East Carolina University, a university-affiliated hospital, MrBeast , and several large pharmaceutical manufacturing plants. Attracting more renewable energy projects statewide has been a point of emphasis for Gov. Roy Cooper, who in addition to Boviet, has championed recent projects involving lithium-ion battery production.

But Boviet’s arrival isn’t without controversy as some have argued no state support should go to Chinese-owned solar companies. Since April, the U.S. has resumed levying certain tariffs on solar panel imports from China.

Ross Stores, 852 jobs

In May, one of the nation’s largest discount department store chains pledged to build a $450 million, 852-worker warehouse in Central North Carolina. Ross Stores, the California company behind Ross Dress for Less, said it will pay average wages of $55,800 at its future Randolph County warehouse.

Ross plans to build the facility in the small city of Randleman, about 20 miles south of Greensboro. This would be the S&P 500 company’s ninth distribution facility and provide fulfillment, packing and warehousing operations for the southeastern United States.

The North Carolina Economic Investment Committee awarded Ross a job development investment grant, or JDIG, worth up to $7.6 million in payroll tax benefits should the company meet its hiring and investment targets. Ross’ first hiring deadline occurs in 2028.

Fujifilm Diosynth, 680 jobs

The largest life science project in the Triangle added $1.2 billion and 680 more workers this spring when the contract pharmaceutical manufacturer Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies announced an expansion to its incoming facility in Holly Springs.

Fujifilm Diosynth is a division of the Japanese parent Fujifilm, which has shifted focus in recent decades from photography toward health care. The company has a campus in Research Triangle Park and is readying a more massive plant in Holly Springs, a town of 46,000 southwest of Raleigh.

The project went public in March 2021, when the state awarded Fujifilm an economic incentive worth nearly $20 million over 12 years to create 725 jobs at a $1.5 billion site. Fujifilm Diosynth hopes to open this plant next year. The company doesn’t design drugs itself but instead produces the medicines other pharmaceutical companies create at scale.

“We can take care of the entire supply chain for the industry,” Fujifilm Diosynth CEO Lars Petersen told the N&O last fall.

In April, Fujifilm and North Carolina upped the ante on this massive project.

Siemens Energy, 550 jobs

Another foreign company and another expansion. Spun off from the Munich-based conglomerate Siemens, Siemens Energy has operated in Charlotte since the late 1960s. In February, it said it would add 550 jobs, mostly in Charlotte but with around 80 positions created in Raleigh. Under its state incentive deal, Siemens Energy committed to hire for these positions by the end of 2028 at an average wage of at least $87,000.

The company, which currently employs approximately 1,200 workers in the Queen City, is using the expansion to manufacture grid products and services , including building its first U.S. power transformer plant, in Charlotte.

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