Future jet, big data center, more pharma: NC’s top 2025 jobs announcements (so far)
Employers like certainty, and the months after U.S. presidential elections often leave questions unanswered — this winter especially.
Would incoming President Donald Trump reverse the economic programs championed by the Biden administration? Would he fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell? Were his tariffs talks a promise or posturing?
In North Carolina, these unknowns slowed a busy jobs pipeline, says state Secretary of Commerce Lee Lilley, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
“There was a lot of project work that just kind of stayed put,” he said last month during an interview with The News & Observer.
The backlog has begun to ease, Lilley said, and each of the state’s biggest jobs announcements of 2025 have arrived since May.
That month, a California aviation startup named JetZero pledged to hire more than 14,500 people over the next decade at the Piedmont Triad International Airport. It is the largest hiring projection in North Carolina economic development history.
It is no sure bet. JetZero hasn’t yet made a demonstrator plane. And most state-backed economic projects don’t reach their hiring targets. But if successful, its first factory will propel North Carolina from a respectable aviation hub — the state ranks No. 10 for aerospace investment — into a jet manufacturing hotspot.
No other company this year has promised to hire 1,000 workers in North Carolina, let alone 10,000-plus. But several employers have unveiled plans to hire hundreds over the next few years.
Entering the second half of the year, let’s recap the seven biggest North Carolina jobs commitments of the year so far. JetZero obviously tops the list. The rest features one of the world’s largest tech companies, a pharmaceutical giant, and more manufacturing from Goldsboro to Asheville.
JetZero: 14,560 jobs
It’s worth repeating: This is North Carolina’s biggest jobs projection ever.
On June 12, the state awarded JetZero an economic incentive worth up to $1 billion if it achieves its hiring goal and invests $4.6 billion by 2036 (and then maintains five-figure employment at the site over three decades.)
These jobs are expected to pay an average salary of at least $89,340. The N.C. General Assembly anticipates providing $450 million to prepare the airport site, including dollars for factory construction and nearby roads.
JetZero aspires to make a new type of passenger aircraft with flatter, wider dimensions. This broader cabin, it says, will be able to shuttle 250 passengers while using less fuel.
“Not only will this plane be 50% more fuel efficient,” JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary said during an announcement event in Greensboro. “It’s going to deliver a better passenger experience than you’ve ever had before on any other plane.”
Jabil, 1,181 jobs
On June 30, the manufacturing solutions firm Jabil announced it would open a $264 million facility in the city of Salisbury that will produce data center components like servers and cooling enclosures.
Jabil, a member of the Fortune 500, selected North Carolina over a finalist site in its home state of Florida. Jabil already employs nearly 1,000 people in North Carolina in Asheville, Hendersonville and Mebane. The firm’s expansion is part of a $500 million effort to grow in the Southeast to support cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Salisbury, the Rowan County seat, is a city of about 37,000 people 45 miles northeast of Charlotte. North Carolina has seen a lot of growth in data center-related projects in recent years, including in the Charlotte region.
To land Jabil, North Carolina offered the company a job development investment grant worth up to $11.8 million, if it meets its hiring and investment goals, while Rowan County pitched in local incentives valued at $2.3 million.
Amazon: 500 jobs
In early June, Amazon announced it would spend $10 billion to build a new data center campus in Richmond County, about 70 miles east of Charlotte and 100 miles west of Raleigh. This facility, the company said, will create 500 jobs.
Data centers are critical to Amazon artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Rivals like Google and Microsoft have also expanded their hyperscale operations in North Carolina.
The state didn’t award Amazon any incentives for this project. Relative to traditional factories, data centers don’t require many workers. While 500 jobs is a lot, it is far fewer than what a $10 billion-project would typically support.
Genentech: 420 jobs
The fast-growing Wake County town of Holly Springs strengthened its reputation for pharmaceutical manufacturing in May when it landed a new factory commitment from Genentech, a subsidiary of the large Swiss drugmaker Roche.
The N.C. Economic Investment Committee gave Roche an economic incentive to build a $700 million plant near the incoming Fujifilm and Amgen facilities. Holly Springs has grown rapidly in recent decades, with its current population of 46,000 residents nearly doubled from 2010.
Roche promises to add these jobs between 2028 and 2032 at an average salary of at least $119,800. If it meets these hiring and investment targets, the company will be eligible to receive up to $9.8 million in payroll tax breaks through a state job development investment grant, or JDIG.
North Carolina, and Holly Springs in particular, has benefited from drug makers bringing more operations to the United States in recent years. Lilley said this trend began after the pandemic when companies “had a reality check on what international supply chains look like for some of these most vital items that we have in our marketplace.”
Prolec GE Waukesha: 330 jobs
In May, the eastern North Carolina city of Goldsboro edged out finalist sites in Mexico, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Brazil to land a second factory from Prolec GE Waukesha.
Prolec GE Waukesha is the largest U.S. manufacturer of power transformers, which modulate electrical voltage across the energy grid. Under its job development investment grant, the company committed to spend $140 million over the next three years to expand its Goldsboro operations. New positions will pay on average at least $71,912, the state said, with hiring expected for welders, assemblers, machine operators and engineers.
Prolec GE Waukesha is the byproduct of a joint venture between GE Vernova (itself a recent spinoff of GE) and the Mexican conglomerate Xignux.
Another General Electric spinoff, GE Aerospace, also made a significant spending promise in North Carolina this year. One of the world’s largest aviation engine makers, GE Aerospace in March said it would invest $100 million at its four North Carolina sites — in Durham, Wilmington, the Ashe County town of West Jefferson, and Asheville.
The company employs around 2,000 workers in North Carolina and says it has just shy of 60 openings statewide.
AVL Manufacturing and Pratt & Whitney: 325 jobs each
In May, the Canadian manufacturer AVL Manufacturing selected Charlotte for its first U.S. production facility. The company manufactures enclosures for industrial power generators and committed to spend $56 million on the project.
Back in January, the state awarded a second incentive to the defense and aerospace manufacturer RTX Corp., previously named Raytheon Technologies, to expand its Asheville plant. RTX is the parent of Pratt & Whitney, which since 2022 has operated a turbine airfoil production plant in the western North Carolina city.
This expansion announcement came four months after Hurricane Helene swept through the city. Pratt & Whitney is one of three RTX divisions, which also include Raytheon and the Charlotte-based Collins Aerospace.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Future jet, big data center, more pharma: NC’s top 2025 jobs announcements (so far)."
