Where new industries stand in North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA (WNCN) — It’s rare that anything is a complete guarantee. However, finding a good paying job, or a career for that matter, in bio-pharma comes pretty close.

Justin Bethea and his fellow students at Wake Tech are training for specific skills that the local bio-pharmacy industry says it needs.

“It’s just a very lucrative industry,” he said. “A lot of my family members working in pharma and I have a burning passion for it, so why not give it some knowledge to go with that passion.”

Kiara Elder has almost completed her training in Wake Tech’s BioWork certificate program and already has a job lined up at Merk.

“I’ve always been interested in the biotech field,” Kiara said. “Just like what they come up with, like vaccines, things like that, helping others and making a difference in the world.”

Ribbon cuttings, shovel ceremonies, announcements from the governor, and visits from the president come with promises of employment, taxpayer benefit, and deals to get companies to choose North Carolina for expansion or as their next home.

Wolfspeed is among the biggest announcements. The North Carolina Department of Commerce awarded the chip maker a $76 million job development investment grant (JDIG) to locate in Chatham County. But to get that full benefit, Wolfspeed has to create 1,802 jobs from 2026 to 2030, with an average wage of close to $78,000 a year.

“This is a form of public spending. It’s just done completely differently than every other form of public spending,” said John Quinterno, a visiting professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Practice. He is also the founder and principal of South by North Strategies Ltd., a research consultancy specializing in economic and social policy.

“I think some of that is a safeguard for taxpayers,” Quinterno continued. “It probably makes more sense to provide subsidies after the company has achieved certain agreed upon benchmarks rather than giving them all the money upfront and hoping that they do it, then having to chase after them to claw it back.”

In a bit of recent whiplash, drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk made the announcement of a $4.1 billion expansion in Johnston County, while Apple’s plans to build a new campus at Research Triangle Park are on hold for four years. The original Apple announcement was three years ago.

According to the latest figures posted by the Department of Commerce, 183 of 406 JDIG projects (around 45%) did not come to fruition between 2003 and 2023. 181 are still active, which includes working to achieve the requirements. After an announcement of new JDIG grants there is always the ever-present variable of a fluctuating economy.

“Whether the economy’s up or down can matter,” Quinterno said.”[The] trends in technology that may seem very promising at this point in time may not pan out 10 years later. They’re projecting out over a 30-to-40-year period. Who knows what the state of the world will be in 30-to-40 years or even the state of that industry.”

Other than searching for things like building permits or the yearly data report released by the Department of Commerce, it’s difficult for the public, including the media, to actually know where a project stands at any given moment. That was the case this year with Vietnamese EV automaker VinFast, which intends to decrease the size of its planned Chatham County plant.

“Once they agree to take public subsidy, which is what they’re doing in these cases, I personally think they probably have some more transparency expectations that should be put around them,” Quinterno said.

When you see progress like the site for jet manufacturer Boom Supersonic in Greensboro, it does make people look at a brighter economic future. The same goes for the Fujifilm Diosenth location in Holly Springs.

“I do have a lot of mental notes in the back of my mind,” Bethea said. “Whenever I start applying, Fujifilm will get an application.”

Kevin Benjamin works in a pharmaceutical warehouse after moving from South Carolina to train at Wake Tech to work in a bio-pharm lab.

“With all these companies investing the pay is going up,” he said. “I look at that as a great opportunity for the people in this area to get in pharmaceuticals.”

Some people tend to watch for the progress the companies are making.

“Yes, I do pay attention to that,” Elder said. “I think it’s great that they’re expanding. Some do choose to decrease their footprint, but I think it’s better that they are expanding because it will give people more jobs and opportunity to start a new career.”

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