The area is home to leading technology companies like IBM, Cree, and others that continue Durham's history of technology and innovation, as well as the County’s manufacturing legacy.

Information Technology

North Carolina has the second-fastest growing information technology industry in the U.S., expanding 26 percent since 2010. The state’s software and telecommunications sector has grown 38 percent in the past five years. North Carolina also ranks No. 2 for STEM program completions in the Southeastern U.S., and is a leading state for STEM job growth.

From Research & Development, to Sales, marketing & customer service, to logistics which consists of manufacturing products that are used in automation or communications, Durham’s IT Cluster includes global companies like Cisco, Oracle, NetApp, Lenovo, IBM and SAS. Every day, new companies are drawn to the area’s business advantages and robust entrepreneurial culture.

The Durham County area is a desirable market because of the low tax burden, business-friendly environment, and low construction cost. Nearly 130,000 highly educated and trained NC residents make up the IT workforce. Demand for these skilled workers is only increasing, as latest Durham statistics show year-over-year job postings growing to 53 percent. The industry is laden with local resources for employees and entrepreneurs, such as organizations that promote newly formed, high-growth companies like NCIDEA.

Clean Technology

Durham County and the surrounding area is home to more than 350 clean tech companies focusing on innovations and smart solutions for software development, energy, transportation and water. Thousands of employees currently make up this sector and our companies' job rates are among the fastest growing.

Between 2009 and 2015, recurring investment in announced clean tech jobs grew to $1.33B, the equivalent of 10,700 recurring jobs in the Research Triangle Region. Our area also had the largest percentage share of clean tech STEM employees among comparative regions, and this workforce has grown by 18.4% in the last ten years, making us the third fastest growing region in this group.

Cleantech emerged as an economic development priority in Durham County nearly ten years ago when we discovered a dense concentration of companies and rich supply of researchers engaged in R&D, particularly in the areas of smart grid, smart water and smart transportation. With an innovation ecosystem that includes three world-class research universities, industry-leading hardware and software companies, and our many specialized smart tech support centers, Durham County is at the center of leading-edge cleantech R&D.

And this sector is rapidly growing, as the number of smart grid companies alone climbed 60 percent in two years. As the center of this demiurgic territory, Durham County is a prime location for cleantech companies to develop and thrive. In June of 2018, New York cleantech firm Xylem chose Durham for a 300-job expansion, investing $4 million into a combined manufacturing headquarters facility for Sensus. Read more here.

DCo_Economic_Icon_Set_Second Fastest Growing Cluster

From 2013-2015, the Durham and Raleigh metropolitan statistical areas accounted for 79% of the state’s cleantech venture capital funding, with more than $211M in funding. More than 42% of the state’s patents, including 39 clean energy patents, between 2002-2015 came from the Research Triangle Region, reinforcing that Durham County’s strong innovative culture is supported by venture capital.

In 2018, Durham was named one of the new tech hotspots in "Beyond Silicon Valley: 5 Up-and-Coming Tech Hotspots." READ MORE