In a time of rapid innovation, the Charlotte Region has emerged as

a destination for technology talent of all types - from engineering

and technician talent in a thriving advanced manufacturing
sector, to software development and information security talent
in a growing financial services industry, to analytical talent using
tech to drive decision-making in the region’s many corporate
headquarters operations.

As home to the headquarters or largest employment base of three

of the six largest U.S. banks, Charlotte is positioned to grow as a
FinTech center. More than 40 FinTech firms are located here,
including unicorn payments automation company AvidXchange
and industry pioneer LendingTree. In addition, more than 6,500
core high-tech talent workers are employed in the financial
services industry in the region.

Q2 2019
 As innovation spills into all industries, it seems like every company these days is
a tech company. In many ways, the tech economy is more about the talent than
narrowly defined “tech industry” companies.

In this report, we distinguish between four types of talent – core high-tech (those
developing new technology), tech-savvy analytical talent (those leveraging
that technology for analytical work), engineering talent (those designing
technologies) and tech installation and maintenance talent (those installing and
Source: Forbes, 2018
maintaining technologies).

Add these four groups up and you get more than 117,000 tech workers across all
industries in Charlotte. The region’s growth in core high-tech talent and tech-
adjacent analytical talent has been especially impressive. Since 2013, the region
has added more than 13,000 core high-tech jobs and more than 9,000 tech-
adjacent analytical jobs.
Source: Robert Half Technology, 2017

Growth of Tech, Engineering and Analytical Talent in the Charlotte Region

2018 FIVE-YEAR CHANGE, FIVE-YEAR
OCCUPATION GROUP
JOBS CHARLOTTE REGION CHANGE, USA
Core High-Tech Talent 52,897 34% 16%
Tech-Savvy Analytical Talent 32,389 40% 22%
Engineering Talent 20,778 18% 7%
Tech Installation and Maintenance Talent 11,630 16% 5%
Total Tech Talent 117,694 30% 14%
Source: EMSI, Q2 2019 Dataset Source: CompTia, 2018

MAJOR TECH ANNOUNCEMENTS

TECH COMPANIES IN THE REGION
SINCE 2018 Alexander County
77
Taylorsville Iredell

300
County

Hickory Statesville
40
New Jobs Newton Salisbury

Catawba County Mooresville

85

375
321 Rowan County

Lincolnton
Lincoln County Kannapolis

New Jobs Huntersville Concord

Albemarle
Cabarrus County
Shelby
74 Gastonia
85 Stanly County

436
Cleveland County Charlotte
Gaston County Mint Hill
485
Mecklenburg
County
New Jobs York County
Indian Trail
Union County Anson County
Fort Mill
Rock Hill Indian Land Waxhaw 74
Monroe

1,229 NC
New Jobs Chester County
77
Lancaster County SC Pageland

Chesterfield County
Chester
Lancaster

50
New Jobs
The growth of tech talent in Charlotte has been a driving
factor in its economic expansion. The growth of tech- Growth of Tech Sectors, Charlotte Region
focused companies is also shaping region’s future. Major
FIVE-YEAR FIVE-YEAR
tech companies like IBM and Microsoft maintain large 2018
INDUSTRY GROUP CHANGE, CHANGE,
operations here alongside growing unicorns (privately JOBS
CLT REGION USA
held companies valued at more than $1 billion) like
IT Services and Software 30,342 55% 26%
AvidXchange, Red Ventures and Tresata. IT companies
like Flexential see Charlotte as a growing Technology R&D and Testing Laboratories 10,154 33% 7%
hub, and continue to invest in data capacity to meet the Telecommunications 9,211 13% -9%
demand in the region. Overall, more than 55,000 people Tech-related Manufacturing,
5,517 -14% 0%
work for tech-related companies in the region. The total Repair and Installation
sector has seen 32% growth since 2013, with growth Total Tech Industries 55,224 32% 11%
particularly strong (55%) in IT and software services. Source: EMSI, Q2 2019 Dataset

Example Tech Companies, Charlotte Region

REGIONAL
COMPANY COUNTY DESCRIPTION
EMPLOYMENT
Red Ventures Lancaster Internet Marketing 2500+
Microsoft Corp Mecklenburg Computers, Computer Equip & Software 1,000-2500
IBM Corp Mecklenburg Consultancy Services 500-999
Dimension Data Mecklenburg IT Consulting 100-500
NTT Data Inc Mecklenburg Computer Related Services, Other 100-500
CompuCom Systems Inc Lancaster Tech Services for Office Depot 100-500
Flexential Mecklenburg Computer Facilities Management Services 100-500
ESRI/Environmental Systems Research Inst Mecklenburg Mapping Software for All Industries 100-500
Xenial Mecklenburg Cloud Management for Restaurant Industry 100-500
Siemens PLM Software Mecklenburg Automation Software 100-500
SentryOne Mecklenburg Software Developer for Financial Industry 100-500
Integration Point Inc Mecklenburg Import/Export Software 100-500
MapAnything Inc Mecklenburg Mapping Software for Salesforce 100-500
Mergent York Market Research Software 100-500
Sources: Charlotte Regional Business Alliance Research, Business Wise, Industry Databases, Charlotte Business Journal

Health Care Educational

More than 52,000 core high-tech Wholesale Trade Services
talent workers live and work in
Manufacturing
Charlotte. What makes Charlotte (Excluding Computer
3% 3%
unique is where these high-skilled
Software Developers, Information
and Peripheral Equipment
Manufacturing) 4%
Security Analysts, Systems Managers
Information
4%
work. Nearly 35% of tech talent works (Excluding Software
for Corporate Headquarters, Finance
and Insurance or Consulting Services,
Publishers and Data
Processing, Hosting and 5%
Related Services)
compared to 26% nationwide. Core
35%
tech talent industries like software
publishers and computer systems
Other
6% Charlotte's Core
design services are growing in Charlotte
as well. About 35% of the region’s tech
Tech Talent High-Tech

talent works in core tech industries,

compared to 29% nationwide.
Adminstrative
Support and
Waste
6% by Industry
Management

10%
Professional Services 12%
& Consulting
(excluding Computer
12%
Systems Design)
Corporate
Finance & Headquarters
Source: CBRE Insurance
Charlotte is a magnet for tech talent from
throughout the country. Alumni from top-ranked
tech schools in the Carolinas find their way, and
tend to stay, in the Charlotte region.

Tech Alumni from Carolinas Universities Tech Alumni from National Universities
ESTIMATED TECH ESTIMATED TECH
SCHOOL SCHOOL
ALUMNI ALUMNI
UNC Charlotte 9,698 Virginia Tech 750
North Carolina State 2,838 Pennsylvania State 564
Appalachian State 2,004 State University of New York 489
UNC Chapel Hill 2,699 Georgia Tech 431
University of South Carolina 1,603 University of Florida 370
Clemson University 1,320 Purdue University 364
Winthrop University 1,178 Ohio State University 330
East Carolina University 1,024 University of Tennessee 301
Western Carolina University 834 Florida State University 294
UNC Greensboro 722 University of Maryland 260
Source: EMSI Profile Analytics, Q2 2019 Source: EMSI Profile Analytics, Q2 2019

Nearly 20,000 engineering certificates and degrees

awarded annually

Nearly 13,000 computer science certificates and degrees

awarded annually

330 S. Tryon Street • Charlotte, NC 28202 • 704.378.1300 • www.charlotteregion.com