Raleigh & Durham, North Carolina Job Outlook

In Raleigh and Durham there is a high number of research, education, health care and information technology opportunities. Top employers in the area include IBM Corporation, WakeMed Health & Hospitals, SAS Institute Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., BASF Corporation, Biogen Idec Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline.

The over 7,000-acre Research Triangle Park (RTP) provides nearly 40,000 residents with full-time employment, some of which are from companies mentioned above. RTP is affiliated with the region's three universities – Duke University, the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University – and is home to notable institutions like the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. RTP is credited with fueling roughly 1,800 startups since the 1970s.

Besides the big companies, the area's major universities not only act as big employers but also provide talent to the major industries.

Raleigh and Durham have lower unemployment rates than the national average, and the region's annual average income is above the national average.