Disruptive year shuffles list of Triangle’s biggest employers. Here’s a closer look
Cisco Systems announced companywide layoffs last week in a step it framed as necessary to “win in the AI era.”
How many, if any, of its roughly 4,000 job cuts will affect Cisco’s sizable Research Triangle Park workforce remains unclear. The Bay Area tech company declined to provide site-specific layoff numbers to The News & Observer. Cisco also wouldn’t disclose its current local headcount (in March 2025, the company had told The N&O it employed more than 4,950 workers at its western Wake County campus.)
Private businesses are entitled to withhold a lot of employment data from the public. But one state database offers glimpses into staff fluctuations at the Triangle’s biggest hirers. Once a month, the N.C. Department of Commerce requires every business, nonprofit, government agency, and school in the state that pays unemployment insurance taxes to report their local jobs figures.
This rule applies to the vast majority of positions. Elected officials and active-military personnel are exempt. The state keeps hiring numbers confidential, however, four times a year, it orders the top employers in all 100 counties — No. 1 to No. 25 — and posts the rankings online. It also displays the top 300 employers statewide.
North Carolina recently updated its lists, now current through the end of 2025. The data doesn’t reflect the deluge of hiring decisions linked to artificial intelligence, but the last calendar year still delivered plenty of volatility.
Federal funding cuts prompted mass staff reductions at Durham research organizations like Duke University, FHI 360, and RTI International. The latter entered last year as the No. 178 biggest employer statewide and finished at No. 260. Duke University dropped from No. 2 to No. 3.
On the plus side, Toyota opened its massive battery plant south of Greensboro in 2025 and entered the state’s Top 300 employers at No. 177. Eli Lilly, with new facilities in the Triangle and outside Charlotte, also broke into the top employer lists.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the combined Durham-Chapel Hill metro area lost 3,800 jobs over the 12-month period beginning in February 2025. The Raleigh-Cary metro, in contrast, added 13,300 jobs during this period.
Here are the top hirers in each of the Triangle’s five largest counties at the end of 2025 — with a snapshot of which employers rose and fell the most during the year:
Durham County (including most of RTP):
Durham rise:
- Eli Lilly, which manufactures popular obesity drugs locally, entered the list at No. 24.
- NetApp rose four spots to No. 17
- Amazon, which operates four facilities in Durham, moved from No. 11 to No. 9
- LabCorp, headquartered in Burlington, inched up three spots to No. 15.
Durham drop:
- Wolfspeed both entered and emerged from bankruptcy in 2025. It fell from No. 7 to No. 10.
- RTI International slipped two spots to No. 11 after federal funding cuts during the start of the second Trump administration.
- UBS Financial Services, which recently purchased rival and prominent Triangle employer Credit Suisse, dropped out of the Top 25 entirely after appearing at No. 14 at the end of 2024.
- Alliance Behavioral Healthcare went from No. 20 to off of the top 25 list as well.
Wake County:
Wake County rise:
- Raleigh’s First-Citizens Bank reentered the Wake County list at No. 24. Compared to Durham’s list, the top employers in Wake County stayed much more consistent during 2025.
Wake County drop:
- Group Management Services, a business support company with a Morrisville office, dropped three spots, as did the N.C. Office of State Human Resources.
Orange County:
Orange County rise:
- Electric power services firm Industrial C&S entered Orange County’s Top 25 employers at No. 7.
Orange County drop:
- Summit Design & Engineering Service slid seven spots to No. 17. Originally headquartered in Hillsborough, the firm last year opened a new Raleigh headquarters.
Johnston County:
Johnston County rise:
- Amazon was the biggest gainer in Johnston County, shooting up from No. 10 to No. 3, as the e-commerce giant has ramped up its new distribution center in Smithfield.
- The Town of Clayton gained three spots, as the Raleigh bedroom community continues to gain people at a blistering pace.
Johnston County drop:
- Caterpillar, Asplundh Tree Expert, and Food Lion all fell two spots. Without specific jobs figures listed, it isn’t clear whether any minor drop is due to employment decrease or just others leapfrogging.
Chatham County:
Chatham County rise:
- FedEx, with a new distribution hub at the Moncure megasite, jumped six places to No. 6.
Chatham County drop:
- Regional electrical contractor Ace Electric Inc. gave up 14 spots on the Chatham County list in 2025, falling outside the top 10.
