South By North Strategies, Ltd.

A new UNC-Greensboro study of  the city’s economy finds conditions to be “less than robust.” From the executive summary:

Greensboro continued to slip even further behind its peer city group especially with respect to below average wage rates and lagging job generation rates in key sectors of the economy (such as professional/scientific/management and various education and health services.) Much of the data included in this report is based on 2008, and as Greensboro began to feel the brunt of the late 2008 economic downturn it appeared it was impacted disproportionately relative to the peer city group.
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Greensboro’s population growth rates (8.0%) continued to lag behind in-state competitors, especially Raleigh (14.4%), Charlotte (12.5%), and even Winston-Salem (12.3%). It seems Greensboro still remains a “goldilocks” economy that is neither too hot nor too cold but instead remained slightly below average on most major metrics.
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Greensboro has experienced significant manufacturing job losses in recent years, and it no longer has a disproportionately large relative share of its labor force employed in manufacturing …. That said, Greensboro has the highest proportion of its labor force employed in retail relative to the peer group – a potential cause for concern given the low wages typically offered in retail.