Microsoft plans 500 new jobs in Morrisville after landing incentives from the state
Computer software giant Microsoft plans to create 500 new jobs in Morrisville in exchange for more than $14.8 million in incentives.
This is the second time the company has landed incentives for expanding in North Carolina in as many months, after saying it would add more than 400 jobs in Charlotte in October.
The Morrisville jobs, which will primarily be software development positions, will pay an average minimum wage of $125,354, according to the N.C. Commerce Department. That is more than double Wake County’s average wage of $58,138.
Morrisville was competing with Houston for the jobs, according to the Commerce Department, which approved the incentives during an Economic Investment Committee meeting on Tuesday. Texas was reportedly offering around $1.26 million in incentives.
Microsoft will have to create the jobs by 2023 and invest $47.5 million in the expansion, according to the terms of the incentive package. The investment will be targeted at improving an existing facility in Morrisville as well as the creation of a new work space to allow for “easier recruitment,” the Commerce Department said.
Office in Perimeter Park
Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft employs around 84,000 people in the United States. In North Carolina, the company has 1,950 employees, with 1,403 of those in Mecklenburg County and the rest in Wake County.
The Wake County office is located in the Perimeter Park office park in Morrisville. The company moved its Wake County team there in 2016, according to a blog post on the company’s website. Located just off Interstate 40, Perimeter Park is near the center of the Triangle region with easy access to Raleigh-Durham International Airport and Research Triangle Park.
Reggie Isaac, who works in economic development for Microsoft, said incentives were a major factor in the company’s decision, but so was the sheer amount of tech talent available in the Triangle region.
“When we looked at this area, we see the talent, and we see the opportunity to also grow and develop talent that can feed our growth of operations here locally,” he said. “The strong university system, the willingness to work and collaborate with us from a state, county and city perspective made it easy for us to make this decision.”
If the company meets its growth targets, it will earn an incentive worth around $13 million from the state, as well as $1.9 million in incentives from Wake County and the town of Morrisville.
For its expansion in Charlotte, the company is in line for $7.9 million in state incentives, the Charlotte Observer reported. The 430 jobs it is adding in Charlotte pay an average wage of about $98,000 per year. If all targets are met, Microsoft could net more than $24 million worth of incentives from state and local governments.
Company hopes to recruit locally
Isaac said the company hopes that most of the new jobs, both here and in Charlotte, come from locals.
“Our goal is always to recruit, to train and retain talent,” he said. “We try to do that locally as much as we can, with the strong university systems, the community colleges and the talent that’s already in the area. We’d love for a lot of the talent to come from within the region. That is our goal, and we also want to keep them in the region.”
N.C. Secretary of Commerce Anthony Copeland, who oversees the state’s recruitment of companies, said splitting the nearly 1,000 new jobs between Charlotte and the Raleigh area should make hiring easier for Microsoft.
Gov. Roy Cooper lauded Microsoft’s expansion as a big economic win for the region. He said the state continues to aggressively court big tech companies — though the state has missed out on expansions from Amazon and Apple in recent years.
“We’re trying to send the signal that we are ready for tech companies,” Cooper said in an interview, “and that [North Carolina] needs to be at the top of their list for states as they analyze and look at before they expand.”
But, the governor cautioned, the only reason companies like Microsoft are interested in North Carolina is the talent here. The state, he said, needs to keep investing in education if it wants announcements like Microsoft’s to continue.
“We want this to be the start of even more (announcements),” he said. “But I will say that we have to continue our investments in education. We have to do more, if we’re going to continue to attract these companies. We cannot rest on our laurels.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 11:21 AM.
