Writer: Liz Palmer
2 min read May 2022 — With the opportunity for professional development, high quality lifestyle, a welcoming community and plenty to do, young professionals are choosing Raleigh-Durham.
Last week, WalletHub released a report listing Raleigh and Durham in the Top 20 best cities to launch a career. The region was also named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best places to live based on the assessment of factors like quality of life, health, housing accessibility, desirability, happiness and others.
President and CEO of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce Adrienne Cole spoke with Invest: last year about the region’s capabilities to accommodate anyone interested in relocating to or remaining in the region and why the Triangle will continue to expand. “The region is on a swift upward trajectory and I’m confident we have what it takes to continue to grow, make smart investments to support that growth in areas like education, infrastructure, affordable housing and transportation, and welcome global companies and talent to the region,” she said.
For young people the Greater Raleigh Chamber provides an extensive Young Professionals Network, and when it comes to young women in particular that are looking to jumpstart their careers, Cole thinks the Triangle is the place to do it. “With our rich rich college and university and community college ecosystem here, buoyed by a really diverse set of industry clusters—information technology and life sciences and advanced manufacturing and professional services—I think that, for young women, even as early as middle school, there’s an opportunity to really look around and see career paths that maybe their mothers and grandmothers didn’t consider,” she said in an interview this week.
Other initiatives and organizations prioritizing talent recruitment and retention include Work in the Triangle, the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, Downtown Durham, Inc. and more.
CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina Christopher Chung recently spoke with Invest: about what the government can do to continue to sustain the region’s popularity among young professionals. “One way is through talent attraction, promoting the community to that target audience of presumably better educated, higher skilled professionals and talk to them about why it’s a great place to live, why it’s a great place to build a career,” he said. “Policy wise, the biggest thing governments can do is make a region attractive in terms of housing affordability and availability, quality of schools and good healthcare.”
