We've all heard the numbers and it's been going on for years, an average of 157 people moving to the 14-county Charlotte region every single day.

But what are they moving here for?

Quality of life, climate, and most of all, jobs.

"Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis joins us with the story of one large local company that just announced another round of expansion.

- Well, with the exception of New York City, the Charlotte region added more jobs than any other metro area in the country in 2025, bucking the national trend of slower hiring.

And to give that a little perspective, New York is seven times the size of Charlotte.

The 37,000 plus jobs the labor department said were created in the region were more than 44 states totals.

One of those companies keeping Charlotte working and keeping the jobs coming is Siemens Energy, which recently announced plans to bring an additional 500 jobs to the state.

(exciting music) It's the midday lunch rush.

Office buildings emptying out, thousands spilling onto uptown streets.

An estimated 115,000 to 130,000 people spend their days working in uptown Charlotte.

- We've never had a problem attracting talent.

We have over 150 people who move here daily.

They're not coming here because things are bad.

They're coming here not only for the opportunities, because they want a better life for their family as, as well.

- [Terzis] Roger Johnson should know a thing or two about attracting talent.

Serving as the Director of Mecklenburg County's Office of Economic Development, he's responsible for leading a team that promotes growth and opportunities for businesses through a variety of programs and services.

- The state works directly with the city and the county, and to some degree, the regional alliance to help tell the story of why they should locate here.

The county's at the table for every one of those conversations.

Sometimes it requires incentives, sometimes it does not.

Our staff makes the determination on what it takes to best attract that company and get those investment and jobs here.

- [Terzis] In just over the last year, Mecklenburg County has been involved in 16 major job announcements at the state level.

- There's many more companies that we help that are not included in that number.

All told it's resulted in over 4,000 new jobs in our community, over $425 million in total investment, averaging over $110,000 a year in salary.

So, we're not just recruiting jobs, we're recruiting quality jobs for our community.

- [Terzis] But there's no easier company to recruit to the area than one that's already here.

- So, this market is tremendous.

- [Terzis] Siemens Energy has been in Charlotte since 1969, with a huge manufacturing facility on Westinghouse Boulevard.

Here, they've been making generators and steam turbines, employing some 1,300 people.

- Siemens Energy is very proud to have multiple super strong locations in North Carolina.

Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Raleigh are all really important locations for us.

I mean, this region is growing from a business standpoint, and it's always been a strong labor pool.

It's got a lot of really high-tech engineering, you know, business level folks that we can bring in to be part of our business, as well as a strong history in manufacturing.

- They've been an integral part of our community for a long period of time.

Most recently, we worked with them to help them locate and expand here and build turbines, which they're gonna make here, sell all over the world, bringing all that money back to our local economy.

- [Terzis] Matt Neal serves as president of North America at Siemens Energy.

A Western North Carolina native himself, Matt grew up in a textile and furniture manufacturing family.

And while the manufacturing game may have changed over the generations, the production sure has not.

- It's a highly educated population with a background in manufacturing.

And when you combine that with just some of the affordability topics, it makes this region attractive for a lot of folks to come in.

It's why Siemens Energy originally invested here, you know, a couple decades ago for this facility to be put here.

And I think that that's just a continuing trend.

- [Terzis] Matt, along with the National Association of Manufacturers' President and CEO, Jay Timmons, recently toured Siemens Energy facility, stopping to talk with employees and checking out the huge robotic machines.

- So, this is the 2026 State of Manufacturing tour.

We do this every year to highlight the great benefits of manufacturing, as well as to talk about policies that help us compete globally and some policies that might hold us back.

And Siemens Energy is just a best-in-class example of what manufacturing can do in positive terms for a community and for job creation and wage growth and just basically improve quality of life for all of the folks around the area.

- [Terzis] Building on the $150 million investment in the Charlotte plant that was announced two years ago, Siemens Energy just committed an additional $421 million to expand operations and production statewide.

- Having the facility here and the established supply chain partners, our ability to expand them and scale them up is a lot easier from an existing location.

In fact, if you look at where Siemens Energy has invested our billion dollars across the US, a lot of it is in existing markets where we have a footprint that allows us to scale supply chain and also workforce.

The ability to train and hire and get folks up to speed in really high-tech manufacturing, you know, building from a foundation, we feel is a lot lower risk and allows us to go faster.

- [Terzis] The primary focus will be manufacturing the SGT6-5000F, a gas turbine that can deliver the equivalent of 260 megawatts.

They're also expanding generator capacity and will expand to manufacture large power transformers.

- Yeah, so it's getting us back into the new unit business for gas.

So, we're bringing gas turbine manufacturing back here to Charlotte, which we're super proud of, and it's also allowing us to make large power transformers for the US market, of which, you know, a lot of power transformers are imported into the US and we want to be a big part of making them here domestically for the US customers.

- [Terzis] The company didn't specify how many of the new jobs will be located in Mecklenburg County, but it should be a substantial portion of the 500 jobs announced statewide.

- So, the types of jobs that will be created here will be advanced manufacturing jobs.

So, residents will have an opportunity to compete for those particular positions if they so desire.

Primarily, they'll be trained in a skilled, high-tech workforce, that type of training can be received locally through CPCC or UNCC.

- [Terzis] Unlike their $150 million investment two years ago, which was supported by a business investment program grant from the county, Siemens Energy is not requesting any tax incentives for its latest expansion plans.

- I think what's not fully understood is the mechanics of how tax incentives work.

We're not giving away residents' tax dollars, that's in the general fund.

The way it works for us is the company comes here, they make a capital investment, they pay their taxes, and after they pay their taxes, we give them what amounts to a portion of their taxes back.

So in effect, we're using their own dollars to help recruit them here, and the future dollars that they're gonna generate as a result of taxes are what the incentives are paid out of.

That way we make sure that the tax burden is not solely on the residents, and we get to provide career opportunities for our residents.

- [Terzis] Investing in people and a region for more than six decades now, Siemens Energy, a big part of the fabric of the community.

- Okay, so all that expansion isn't happening right here in Charlotte, correct?

- Correct, and Siemens Energy does have a big presence throughout the state.

Siemens has three plants in North Carolina, the main one in Charlotte that we just showed you, Raleigh, and as well as Rural Hall, which is a town just north of Winston-Salem.

In Raleigh, Siemens is expanding grid technology, engineering, and sales, plus research and development.

It's all part of a $1 billion investment by Siemens Energy in manufacturing all across the United States with a big chunk of that here in Carolina.

- A German-based company committed to the Carolinas.

We love seeing it.

- Thanks a lot.

- Absolutely.

Manufacturing.

Gotta love it.