I am not so sure. Considering that Raleigh ranked ahead of Durham in every measurement I think there is a good chance if the metros were combined that Raleigh would have not been ranked as well add it was.
I’ll add that 3 companies hiring in Durham-Chapel Hill (according to the report) are in Wake County: Cisco, Biogen, and NetApp. There may be more, but those three jumped out at me.
The one metric that drags the Triangle down is the number of IT jobs available. Since the Triangle is split in two, both cities are on the lower end.
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The “IT Job Ads” metric is also the only metric that they showed that is an absolute number and not somehow adjusted for COL or population size. Based on the measures they used, if you combined Durham and Raleigh what you’d actually probably see is “Raleigh-Durham” showing up somewhere near the middle between #2 and #13, as Durham’s lower IT jobs per capita, higher COL index rank, lower COL-adjusted earnings and lower job growth would drag the combined area down from the #2 spot. Being a combined area helps for things like “largest cities in the US by population” rankings, but this is one scenario where I think Raleigh actually benefits from being shown separately.
Isn’t that more representative of what’s actually going on, though? Doesn’t make sense to artificially inflate the rankings if it’s not real (ignoring the split-MSA problem but all else being equal)
I’m sure we are helped in some measures by the split. But it leads credence to the idea we are separate places, which is misleading. We don’t need to game the system.
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I hear ya, but I’d still like to see what the data looks like combined. As for the hypothesis that Durham would drag Raleigh down, I have to laugh at the irony of that. Durham’s main reason for cheering the separate MSA was that they thought that Raleigh was stealing their spotlight, and that all of the good things that the Triangle benefits from come from them. Since the split, it sure hasn’t played out that way.
Even if the two were combined, remember that the Raleigh side would be way more heavily weighted statistically since it has nearly double the population.
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@keita @JeepCSC I was just responding to the comment that suggested that if Durham had been included in Raleigh’s numbers in this particular survey that Raleigh might have placed even higher, which, from what I can gather about their ranking methodology, would not have been the case. I agree with you both, I think a much truer picture is seen in many cases when Raleigh and Durham are counted together, especially in this case since: 1. we’re being compared nationally, and 2. the nature of RTP and how it relates to industry and employment here means a handful of businesses being on one side of the county or city borders could unduly sway the numbers. From the way list is presented, a reader might not realize they can live in either Raleigh or Durham and have most of the benefits of both when it comes to employment opportunities. They don’t even mention the proximity of the two anywhere in the report, which you would think the reader might want to know, whether they were a potential employee or business executive/owner.
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You are correct @Mitch. I noticed that too. At the very least, the report should have tied them together with RTP and the nature of the university culture/saturation. As it stands, Durham “gets” all of RTP in their report, despite 3 of the hiring companies mentioned are in Wake.
I also had to laugh at their map that showed Durham to the southeast of Raleigh.
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Not sure if this qualifies, but the NYT has an air pollution tool that lets you see how our air stacks up with the cities of northern India (or China, or San Fran during https://community.dtraleigh.com/images/emoji/google/factory.png?v=9fires. We’re doing well! 
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Raleigh ranked #2 in best place in the country to land a tech job. Also kind of interesting that North Carolina has 3 of the top 15 best places for tech jobs.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article238004559.html
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Tompkins Robotics, based in Raleigh, gets a some coverage - with the mention of their HQ being in RAL in this story on CNBC today.
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run across this news in that is not behind a pay-wall. The chart below is interesting in that Raleigh is #6 in gaining tech jobs and Durham is listed on city that has LOST the most jobs. Little confusing how that lost ranking is made.
Map from report with rankings
I don’t see Austin or Nashville in the list…
So, Raleigh’s gaining at the expense of Durham?
I suppose that it’s RTP jobs that were mostly lost.
Not really about Raleigh but the opening paragraphs are nice.
" Planning to sell a home in Raleigh, N.C.? There’s a decent chance that an “iBuyer” will purchase it.
Raleigh had the largest share of homes bought by companies that use technology to make instant offers on homes. Nearly 7% of homes sold in Raleigh in the third quarter of 2019 were bought by iBuyers, according to a new report from real-estate firm a reflection of the city’s affordable housing market and tech-savvy population."
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Biz Journal has an article/slideshow referencing an Apartment Guide report about the number of residential building permits issued in 2019. Raleigh-Cary (there’s that small Durham-free MSA again) is 19th overall in terms of pure quantity, but a runaway 1st overall when it comes to permits issued per capita. The only area that comes close is The Villages in FL, which is more or less a planned retirement community on steroids.
New Home Construction Across The Country | ApartmentGuide.com
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Wow! That’s a huge number if you base it on the 2018 MSA population estimate of about 1.36M people. If there were 145 units permitted per every 10,000, that’s nearly 20,000 permits. Depending on household size, that could add housing for 40,000+ new residents to the metro. DT Raleigh should get its fare share of those new residents!
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The Wilmington - Myrtle Beach corridor silently blowing up down there.
I wonder how much growth has been happening down in Southport / Bald Head / Oak Island / Ocean Isle area too, or if that’s included in here.
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Brunswick county (between sc line and new Hanover where Wilmington is) is apparently one of the fastest growing counties in the state by population increase percentage
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Something is somewhat fishy with those numbers for Raleigh/Cary. For Nov 2018-Oct 2019, the census bureau reports 14463 housing permits in the MSA and a population of 1.337 million, or 108 per 10k. Still in the top tier nationally but not quite blowing the roof off like 145 would be.