TEConomy report: NC life sciences growth outpaces nation, passes 100,000 job milestone

North Carolina’s life sciences industry has crossed a milestone – exceeding 100,000 jobs for the first time – and continues to outpace national industry growth and most other top-tier life sciences states.

This key statistic and more are in the latest TEConomy Partners report “2024 Evidence & Opportunity: Impact of Life Sciences in North Carolina.” The North Carolina Biotechnology Center commissions TEConomy for this detailed look at North Carolina life sciences. TEConomy Partners prepares a national state-by-state report every two years in collaboration with BIO, the world’s largest biotech trade association.

The 2024 report, which was also NCBiotech’s 40th anniversary, points to tangible progress of the state’s life sciences industry, which continues to outpace national industry growth and even the growth of other top-tier life sciences states. “The growth is significant, not just for a steady new job and career opportunities for North Carolinians, but also for the strong wage premiums and varied skill demands the industry is generating,” the report states.

Here are some of the key findings from the report:

• In 2023, North Carolina’s life sciences industry exceeded 100,000 jobs for the first time — a significant milestone for the cluster in which the state has invested consistently for four decades. Industry employment totaled 103,107 in nearly 6,700 state business establishments.
• Since 2019, North Carolina’s life sciences industry has rapidly increased its employment base by 23% while the state’s private sector job growth is up just 9%.
• Likewise, the industry is rapidly expanding its physical footprint, with the number of life sciences industry business establishments increasing by 43% during this same period.
• North Carolina’s life sciences industry is generating high-quality jobs, with its workers earning more than $121,000 per year on average in 2023. This wage level far exceeds that for the overall state private sector by more than $55,000 or 84%.
• The jobs milestone places the state 7th among all states in life sciences employment. With its strong industry growth, North Carolina has risen in this ranking in recent years, from ninth in 2020 and prior reports, up again from eighth in the 2022 assessment.
• North Carolina remains one of the leading high-growth life sciences states among the top tier. During this period of strong life sciences growth, only three of the top-tier states have increased their employment by more than 20% —Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Texas.

“Seeing this continued growth of the life sciences in North Carolina is especially gratifying to us at NCBiotech,” said NCBiotech CEO Doug Edgeton. “Our mission since we were founded more than 40 years ago has been to grow the life sciences statewide, and we’re looking forward to even more success in the coming years.”

Where NC excels

“North Carolina stands out among leading life sciences states not only for the size of the state cluster or its strong growth trends over time but also for its varied mix of subsector strengths across the industry,” the report states. When a state has a significantly greater share of jobs in a specific industry, namely 20% or greater, according to TEConomy it can be deemed a specialization for the state.

North Carolina is one of just nine states with a specialized employment concentration in the life sciences industry in three of the five major subsectors, and it is nearly specialized in a fourth.

The subsectors include:

• Drugs and pharmaceuticals (3rd in the nation)
• Research, testing, and medical labs (4th in the nation)
• Bioscience-related distribution (8th in the nation)
• Agricultural feedstock and industrial biosciences (8th in the nation)
• Medical devices and equipment (19th in the nation)

“Just as the overall industry has expanded in North Carolina since 2019, so has each of its five major subsectors. In fact, each has grown at a double-digit pace over this latest 4-year period and outpaced its corresponding national subsector growth (see figure above),” the report states.

The progress in each subsector is detailed in the full report.

Economic impacts

The life sciences industry has a significant impact on the North Carolina economy. Using data from NCBiotech’s life sciences industry database, TEConomy states that the state’s life sciences employment and companies drive $51.6 billion in direct corporate revenues, which in turn are contributing much to the North Carolina economy. 

Including multiplier effects, the life sciences industry in N.C. generates and supports:

• $82.1 billion in total revenue impacts with an output multiplier of 1.59—for every $1 in direct output for the North Carolina life sciences industry generates and supports an additional $0.59 in the state economy.
• $2.5 billion in state and local tax revenues, consisting of $1.6 billion in state and $0.9 billion in local government revenues.
• 213,604 total job impacts with an employment multiplier of 2.84—every single North Carolina life sciences industry job generates and supports an additional 1.84 jobs in the state economy.
• A contribution to the state Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reflected in the total value-added impacts, reached $41.0 billion.

NCBiotech’s role

“North Carolina recognized these unique development requirements and ecosystem dynamics early on, and for four decades NCBiotech has played a significant, multi-faceted role in ensuring the state has access to these vital resources and connections,” the report states. “By investing resources and steadily nurturing this ecosystem over decades, NCBiotech has established itself as the trusted partner the life sciences industry has leveraged and utilized to thrive and to grow.”

TEConomy points out that NCBiotech offers “an impressive breadth of resources and services that span five domain areas:

• Funds for commercializing university research and boosting early-stage company development;
• Talent development initiatives and professional networking;
• Investor and industry connections to fill gaps;
• Unique spaces to accelerate company growth; and
• Access to high-value information resources.” 

Since 2008, NCBiotech has assisted in the efforts to attract or retain 160 major life sciences employers, including those accounted for during the last two fiscal years, playing a critical role in supporting the state’s economic development partners in attracting, growing and retaining North Carolina’s life sciences companies.

Since 1989, NCBiotech’s Emerging Company Development team has strategically deployed more than $61 million in loan funding to 277 start-up life sciences companies. For every $1 in loans made by NCBiotech, loan portfolio companies have subsequently raised an additional $132 in other sources of funding.

The next big thing – NC’s bioeconomy

In the report, TEConomy isolates a key trend that NCBiotech will focus on in the coming years – the state’s and the global “bioeconomy.”

The bioeconomy was defined in a recent report by the previous Federal Administration as “economic activity derived from the life sciences, particularly in the areas of biotechnology and biomanufacturing, including industries, products, services, and the workforce.” 

NCBiotech defined the North Carolina bioeconomy as:

“The convergence of biotechnology, bioresources (biomass), and bioecology. It impacts industries like biomedical, agricultural biotech, and industrial biotech and builds on North Carolina’s assets and resources, providing well-paying jobs across the state, while contributing to the overall economy, stewardship, and security of the U.S.”

TEConomy calls out that North Carolina is “already a recognized and established leader in the rapidly growing biopharmaceutical-focused biomanufacturing sector.” The report points out that N.C. has additional opportunities in the bioeconomy that leverage its existing and emerging industry, infrastructure, and related asset base. 

NCBiotech has set out to define the key pillars of the N.C. bioeconomy to better understand the state’s strengths and growth opportunities and enable our state to capture its share of this U.S. market estimated to grow to $3.4 trillion by 2030.