College grads descend on Charlotte, packing U-Hauls and bars
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Someone alert the Fed that the Tyber Creek Pub line in South End on a Friday night is actually an economic indicator. Photo: Alexandria Sands/Axios
It’s like college move-in season. But instead of a tiny dorm, they’re moving into $3,900 South End apartments split among three roommates. Instead of the student union, they’re wrapping the block around Tyber Creek Pub.
Why it matters: Welcome to Charlotte, grads. While nationally your peers are struggling to find work, you've landed in an outlier market where employers are bringing young recruits in by the hundreds to start their first big-boy and girl jobs this summer.
What they're saying: "I never had a city where I saw myself living," says Regina Prieto, a SCAD graduate who moved here four weeks ago for a job at Honeywell. "But now that I'm in Charlotte, I feel it's the perfect mix of a big-city vibe, but also … LoSo is a little bit more chill."
- Prieto says she gravitated toward lower South End after seeing an Instagram Reel that described the neighborhood as having a younger, party vibe.
Some will go, and some will stay. But these Gen Zers will shape the city’s trajectory and become essential to the economy. Young people already make up an outsized proportion of the workforce, Axios previously reported.
State of play: Companies are hiring people fresh out of college for hundreds of positions this time of year.
- Charlotte-based Bank of America, for example, has recruited about 400 full-time employees from campuses this summer, largely in client-facing and technology roles.
- And Duke Energy tells Axios that more than 100 college graduates will start with the power company between May and September, most of whom are in the Charlotte area.
By the numbers: Charlotte Center City Partners estimates South End and Uptown gained roughly 1,900 residents in a year who fit the demographic groups known as "young city solos" and "singles and starters," citing Placer.ai data.
- Just over half of the roughly 23,000 people in South End are in these clusters.
"They look like babies. They're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," says Ty Ramseur, U-Haul's East Charlotte president. "It's a lot of telltale signs that we've had a large influx of young people … they get dropped off by parents."
Zoom out: The top places people move to South End from, per Center City Partners, are all college towns: Chapel Hill; Columbus, Ohio; Columbia and Clemson, South Carolina; and Winston-Salem.
- Newcomers are constantly spotted squeezing couches into tight apartment elevators this time of year. The Sloan complex in lower South End says move-ins peak during the summer months. More than half of residents who moved in between June and August last summer were under 25.
- Charlotte is also seeing some of its highest apartment demand on record, especially in younger neighborhoods — like South End, Uptown and NoDa — where absorption increased about 2.7% from the year prior. Meanwhile, the Charlotte market as a whole actually saw a 4.8% drop.
Flashback: Charlotte used to have to “lure” millennials here. But that doesn't seem to be the case with Gen Z. It’s a top city for recent college grads, who are drawn to the walkability of bars, coffee shops, restaurants and nightlife.
- "I have not met an employer that has said, 'Oh my God, it's so hard to hire people here,'" says James LaBar of economic development group Charlotte Center City Partners. "It's the exact opposite."
- If South End’s walkability can compete with Franklin Street, the trend should persist.
- "It's cool that you can hop around different bars in the same area without having to get an Uber," Prieto says.
The other side: Charlotte may be on a streak of economic wins and corporate expansions right now. But the national job market is flashing warning signs.
- Workers, especially those with a college degree, think the job market is awful, a recent Gallup analysis found.
- And with AI threatening roles and Charlotte's near-unmanageable growth raising the cost of living, it’s no longer a question of whether young folks want to stay in Charlotte as much as whether they can.
The bottom line: It's easy to look past South End rent when you've suddenly been promoted from ramen-noodle money to a full-time paycheck. But a good time after 5pm won't always be what life requires.