RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Apple, Amazon, and Google are all growing their presence in North Carolina, and a new report from LinkedIn cites each company among the top 50 best workplaces to grow a career.

The annual report, which the company did not release in 2020 due to the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, uses unique data available to LinkedIn along seven pillars that pertain to career progression.

Those include: The opportunity to progress both at a single company and beyond, a supportive and connected workplace culture, the ability to gain new skills and diversity in the types of people you get to work alongside.

Topping the list in 2021 is Amazon, which recently announced the construction of two Wake County facilities, and has other facilities in North Carolina.  The company rose to the top of LinkedIn’s list due to what LinkedIn described as an innovative remote-onboarding system and a focus on internal mobility.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, comes in at number 2.  According to LinkedIn, the company plans to expand its U.S. operations by adding as many as 10,000 jobs, along with starting to hire in its temporary engineering facility in Durham that could house as many as 1,000 employees during the company’s expansion into the Triangle.

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Telecommunications company AT&T came in at #4, despite hundreds of store closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, though LinkedIn found that “the bulk of recently laid off retail employees were offered positions at other parts of AT&T.”

Bank of America, with a large presence in Charlotte, ranks fifth on LinkedIn’s list.  The company redeployed nearly 30,000 employees to assist in facilitating the Paycheck Protection Program, and the company’s retail-banking president said that engagement from employees rose while turnover fell in 2020, which is believed to be one result of the bank tripling commitment to affordable homeownership and boosting a pledge to advance racial equity and economic opportunity.

At number 6, IBM, with a large Research Triangle office, is noted as a leading company in hiring people with autism through a neurodiversity program, and Red Hat, the Raleigh-based company which IBM acquired in a massive deal, is noted as a leading contributor to IBM’s growth.

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Apple, which recently announced a 3,000-employee campus that will be based in Wake County, comes in at number 8, and according to the company, plans to expand in and invest in the United States in North Carolina and across the country.  LinkedIn found that more than half of the company’s new hires in the U.S. are people who are a part of groups that are historically underrepresented in technology.

Walmart, one of North Carolina’s top employers, comes in at number 9, and according to the company, during the pandemic, gave more than 200,000 workers a raise and recently announced it would increase the share of hourly employees who work full-time hours to 66 percent. The company has a corporate office in the Charlotte area.

Oracle and Cisco, both with large North Carolina workforces, came in at #21 and #22, respectively, and Fidelity Investments, with a presence in the Triangle, came in at #49.

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