North Carolina Technology Industry

Although not as famous as the Stanford Industrial Park, the Research Triangle Park (RTP), created in 1959, is one of the largest research parks, powered by the intellect of three leading universities in the region - Duke University, NC State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.The ICT industry has grown by 38% over the past years, employing over 126,000 professionals. One reason for the technology workforce is the state’s performance as a STEM hub, ranking at #2 in South East United States. The Centennial Campus has acted as an enabler for the growth in the sector, bringing government, industry experts, and students under one roof. The 1000+ acre campus provides incubation service for technology companies serving in networking, advanced analytics, nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, and biomanufacturing.

Although not as famous as the Stanford Industrial Park, the Research Triangle Park (RTP), created in 1959, is one of the largest research parks, powered by the intellect of three leading universities in the region - Duke University, NC State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Familiar revenue source and lack of innovation nearly cost NC its economy when in the mid-1950s, the state had the lowest per capita income in the nation. The lack of infrastructure to support specializations led to a massive brain drain.

RTP was established to reverse the talent outflow. The park is divided into clusters to supports 11 technology sub-sectors: Advanced Medical Care, Agriculture Biotechnology, Cleantech, Analytical Instrumentation, Biological Agents and Infectious Diseases, Informatics, Defense Technologies,  Interactive Gaming And E-Learning, Nanoscale Technologies, Pervasive Computing, and Pharmaceuticals. Although the workforce strength and sales give the impression that technology is a major force in the state, the real health of the sector is measured through Location Quotients (LQ). A value of 1.25 or higher in LQ, shows that the sector’s contribution will influence the wealth-generating capacity of the state.

Among the many sub-sectors in technology that was measured (Energy Tech, Environment Tech, Life Science, IT, High-Tech Services and Manufacturing), only technology in manufacturing has a score of 1.32 with Environment Tech at a distant second of 1.12.

The real measure of an industry is the number of indirect jobs and revenues it generates. Technology has a 3.12 multiplying effect which means for every one job in technology, two additional jobs supporting the industry was created, generating over $150 billion in sales, for the $82 billion in sales revenue in the technology sector, accounting for 20% of North Carolina’s total sales revenue.

Reference
North Carolina State of Technology - 2017 Industry Report