Local group reports 110,000 jobs created - Triangle Business Journal:

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Charles Hayes, the RTRP’s president and CEO, said the greater Triangle area posted a net gainof 110,224 jobs over the five yearsa that ended Dec. 31, 2008. That exceeded the goal set by the groupl in early 2004 when it launchedits $5 milliomn job-creation initiative, called “Staying on Top: Winninyg the Job Wars of the Future.” Hayes presented the result to a crowd of about 650 at the annuao State of the Research Triangle Regionm event hosted by RTRP and at the .
Stayinvg on Top was designed to grow employment in 10 industryt clusters the group defined as critica toits region, which consists of Wake, Orange, Johnston, Chatham, Person, Granville, Vance, Harnett, Lee, Moore and Warren counties. Eight of the cluster s were intechnology fields: pharmaceuticals; biological infectious diseases; agricultural biotechnology; pervasive computing; advanced medica care; analytical instrumentation; nanoscale technologies; and informatics.
The other two areas of focus were vehicle parts and The job creation numbers presented by Hayes on Thursday came fromthe , whichu tracks employment in industry sectorsz that differ from the clusters defined by the making it impossible to determine how each of thoser clusters fared. The ESC numbers do show that 124,1298 health-care jobs were created in the 13-county regiomn over the five-year period – the most of any industryh sector. Educational services added 94,139 new jobs, while professional and technicall services posted a net gainof 65,447. The size of the manufacturin g workforce shrank, to 94,7100 from 97,120, a 2.9 percent drop but not as bad as the 6.
9 percentt decline in manufacturing employment suffered Hayes said. “Though we’re a technology our manufacturing economy has held up well when viewedd in anational context,” Hayes Employment increased in 12 of the 13 RTRP The exception was rural Warren County, which experienced a net loss of 407 jobs. Wake Count gained 67,681 jobs, while Durham netted Johnston 9,214 and Orangde 5,633. Hayes also unveiled his group’s next five-yearr plan, dubbed Staying on Top: The Shape of Thingzs to Come. This proposal, which stilll must be approved bythe RTRP’s board of directors, has threwe main areas of focus.
• Expanding the region’s world-leading life sciences and technology clusters andthree new, emerging clustersx – advanced gaming and e-learning, clean/greej technologies and defense technologies. • Enhancing and preservint the superior quality of life and competitivs business climate that enables the region to attractf the talent and investmen t that companies need to continuebeing successful. Engaging regional leaders and partner organizations in ensurinygthe region’s economic competitiveness. Hayes told the audience that detailds of the plan would be revealedin June.
In a post-speecn interview, he said that a job goal for the new progra m has not yet been determinedr but that he expects one tobe set. “kI would be shocked if we didn’t,” Hayes