15 Hot Jobs and The Best Place to Move in North Carolina

Two cities in North Carolina have been recognized on the list of American suburbs that are the Best 25 Places to Move for work in the USA. Forbes.com determined this list in July 2009 and found these cities to have the highest percentages of residents moving in from other states and countries. Apex NC is Number 3 on the list, Cary NC is Number 8, only 7 miles apart and a short distance from State Route 1 near Raleigh NC.

Cary, North Carolina is expected to continue population and land area growth from 2009 - 2020s. This estimate by federal, state, and local givernments and economic development agencies is founded on the facts that Cary 1) is near Apex NC (an even faster-growing Raleigh suburb), and 2) its proximity to the Research Triangle of North Carolina and specifically, the 7,000-acre Research Triangle Park and its nearly 200 companies. While many of the companies are high-tech and aide in developing emerging technologies, industries, and new jobs; other of these companies are retail and service originated. In fact, the Research Triangle Park enjoys its own commercial district, just as the Pentagon in Washington DC offers an onsite shopping mall. Further, a specialized cuisine in the Research Triangle has given rise to celebrity chefs publishing cookbooks and participating in Cable TV cooking shows.

The Research Triangle includes the large metro areas of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill NC, from east to west, and the smaller cities of Cary and Apex from east to southwest. Cary is within roughly 30 miles of any of the other cities mentioned. All of these areas have increased in population size in the 1990s and 2000s, with Apex and Cary on the Forbes list of the 25 Best Places to Move for work at Numbers 3 and 8, respectively. A majority of the local populations of both Cary and Apex were born in either a different state or a different country, and people continue to migrate into the area.

Given continued growth in the Research Triangle Region (RTR) through the 2010s and 2020s, the area encompassing the five cities mentioned above will become a designated metroplex. This has occurred similarly in Ohio in the Ohio Space Corridor extending from Cincinnati, Ohio /Florence, Kentucky upward through Dayton and the area of Fairborn and Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Workers commute as far as from end to end of this corridor and the same is likely to occur in the Research Triangle area in North Carolina. Cary supports a large population of just under 117,000 people, as of 2009.

The largest driving force for Apex growth is decidely the Research Triangle Park. It helped to quadruple the population of Apex from 1900 - 2000 alone. As the largest research park in the US, set within the 8 counties of the RTR. it celebrated its 50th anniversary in early 2009. The Research Triangle has been recognized by Forbes.com as the Number 1 Best Place for Business & Careers in the US, according to the RTF website (see employment link below).

At the end of the 2000s, Research Triangle Park was approximately 40 years old or older. The anchor company of this park and the Research Triangle Region is the SAS Institute, the internationally known statistical programming and software business leader. SAS programs are used in statistical analyses and educational classes at nearly every college and university in America, as well as in government and private business. These programs are constantly upgraded to provide the most accurate and revealing results in analysis.

Raleigh NC surrounds the Research Triangle Region (RTR) on the north and east sides. Research Triangle Park and Morrisville surround the RTR on the north and west sides. Apex and Holly Springs NC lie at the south border of the RTR and   is on the western border. Cary NC is near the center of the region, largely in Wake County, with a portion of the city in Chatham County.

Research Triangle Park Companies

In addition to the SAS Institute, numerous additional research and business leaders grace the park. Just a few of them include IBM, Cisco, the EPA, Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Bayer CropScience, Clean Design, Credit Suisse, KidsNation, Radisson Hotel. and New Voices Foundation.

The federal and state governments estimate the following jobs to increase rapidly, bu greater percentages, than other job in and around the capital of Raleigh, in Wake and Johnson Counties. This includes Apex and Cary and the Research Triangle. entries in bold print indicate jobs that are showing up in actual listings.

1. Personal/Home Care Aides 79.33 - reflects an aging population.
2. Registered Nurses (RNs)
3. Computer Applciations Software Engineers 59.53
4. Home Health Aides (HHAs) 51.89
5. Construction Laborers 38.85
6. Business Operations Specialists 38.09
7. Landscaping/Groundskeeping Workers 34.12
8. Mainstream Elementary School Teachers 34.59
9. Child Care Workers 34.52
10. First-line Supervisors/Mgrs in Construction Trades 33.80
11. Carpenters 33.44
12. Customer Service Representatives 31.81
13. Food Preparation and Service 31.35
14. Teacher's Assistants 30.77
15. Accountants/ Auditors 30.43 - especially Forensic Accounting
16. Janitors & Cleaners, except housekeepers and maids

1. Dental Assistants
2. Registered Nurses (RNs)
3. Network Engineers
4. Software Developers
5. Hygienists
6. Front Desk - Dental practices.
7. Project Managers
8. Physical Therapists
9. Sales Representatives
10. Software Engineers
11. Cashiers & Customer Service Reps
12. Store Managers
13. Account Executives
14. Technical Writers
15. Oracle Dbas
16. Java Developers
17. Outside Sales Representatives