Apr 28, 2026 - Business
Durham and Raleigh's economies went two different directions last year
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While the Raleigh metro area was one of the biggest winners for jobs last year, it was a completely different story in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro.
Why it matters: Durham shed around 3,800 jobs in 2025, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- The losses appear to be a direct reflection of the area's exposure to federal research cuts.
State of play: Gerald Cohen, chief economist at the Chapel Hill-based Kenan Institute, told Axios the data suggests cuts to science funding hit the metro area hard.
- Cohen said around 1,600 jobs were lost last year in professional, scientific and technical services, while another 1,800 were lost in manufacturing.
Zoom in: Big names to cut jobs last year, included:
- Duke University, which offered buyouts to hundreds.
- FHI360 and RTI International, which were both impacted by cuts to U.S. AID.
- And Wolfspeed, which cut hundreds of jobs at its plants in Durham.
The other side: Durham is still attracting job expansions, perhaps indicating it was a one year glitch for the metro area.
- Pharmaceutical firms Novartis and AbbVie are both planning to invest heavily in the city, and the financial services firm Aspida has said it wants to hire 1,000 more workers in Durham.
- Raleigh, on the other hand, keeps adding jobs at a fast clip. Among the 50 largest metro areas, Raleigh's job growth was tied for the second most at 1.7% last year, according to Joseph Politano of Apricitas Economics.