Harris Teeter Carrboro's top employer

For a town that prides itself on its local businesses, residents might be surprised to learn that Harris Teeter is Carrboro’s largest private employer.

While Carrboro is home to a highly educated workforce, employment opportunities in the town span a diverse range of skill levels.

Many residents work in the surrounding area — Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill — but 30 percent of Carrboro workers also commute outside Orange County, according to a report from the Planning and Transportation Advisory boards from October 2012.

Alderman Randee Haven-O’Donnell said these numbers are not indicative of the state of the economy.

“If you take a look at the numbers, you’re probably going to have people working more service-level jobs than professional jobs in a municipality because you’ve got retail- and service-oriented work,” she said. “Those kinds of support jobs are in the majority. Does that mean that the economy isn’t good? Not necessarily.”

Entrepreneurs and people who work from home also contribute heavily to the town’s economy, but Annette Stone, Carrboro’s community and economic development director, said those workers aren’t included in employment data.

“There’s a lot of what we call a hidden economy around here of entrepreneurs — people who work for themselves,” Stone said. “So there’s not large scale manufacturing but there are self-starter types (of businesses) around.”

Haven-O’Donnell said these entrepreneurs buoy the town’s economy and its character because they consider themselves to be very loyal to the Carrboro brand.

Affordable workforce housing is a huge barrier to attracting more employers to the town, Haven-O’Donnell said.

The mean renter wage in Carrboro is $9.67 per hour — much lower than the statewide renter wage of $12.11, the report said. At this wage, a head of household would have to work 62 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rent price in Carrboro.

Haven-O’Donnell said Carrboro’s rising creative class will help it increase its employment opportunities during the next five years.

“Carrboro is creative class-centric,” she said. “The board has worked hard to develop Carrboro’s niche economy — one steeped in the arts, inclusive of design, web business and professional arts.”

Haven-O’Donnell said while she hopes Carrboro will see a wider array of employment opportunities, she is pleased with the direction the town is heading with a new initiative for arts and innovation development in addition to its existing downtown wireless internet network.

“We are on the threshold of a more diverse local living economy,” she said.

She said the change is possible, in part, due to the town’s independence from UNC.

“Unlike Chapel Hill — I hate to tell you — the advantage we have is that we are connected to UNC on some things like our transportation, but we don’t have the elephant in the room the rest of the time and Chapel Hill does,” she said. “That’s the reason Carrboro — I hope forever — will stay a little, independent town.”

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