The Charlotte, Research Triangle and Wilmington regions outpaced the state in job growth last year, according to a First Union analysis of state numbers, while Asheville, the Triad, Fayetteville and Hickory lagged.

The seven-county Charlotte region added nearly half the state's 76,500 net new jobs and at 4.1 percent, had more than double the state's 2 percent job growth. The Triangle was a distant second, adding 20,300 jobs. The Triad - Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point - added 10,400 jobs, but that was an increase of only 1.6 percent. South Carolina numbers are not yet available.

In January, the Charlotte region continued its surprisingly strong job growth that comes amid heavy layoffs, including those at Freightliner and the banks, and a national economic slowdown. The January numbers, which are preliminary and will be revised, may include aberrations of record-keeping, said Mark Vitner, the First Union economist who analyzes Employment Security Commission data. Even with revisions, the job growth numbers are likely to show Charlotte remains a hot job market.

The biggest job gains continue to come in business and professional services - law offices, accounting firms, computer programming, data processing and consulting companies. Vitner estimates this subgroup of service jobs added 11,400 jobs last year, a jump of 12.1 percent. Office jobs are of particular interest to commercial developers, and Vitner calculates that the new jobs added last year filled 2.5 million square feet of office space.

"Republished with permission from The Charlotte Observer.  Copyright owned
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