Jobs report helps show why Raleigh-Durham should be one metro area

Over breakfast recently, the point was made by a journalist to a Chamber of Commerce executive:

The Triangle needs to be one Metropolitan Statistical Area. Let’s put aside the local partisanship and champion the Triangle.

The inside word is that work is taking place on the idea.

Good. The sooner the better.

Here’s an example of what a united region can produce:

The North Carolina Next Generation Network consortium.

This group of municipalities and universities is showing the way that a united Triangle should follow. (Of course NCNGN includes the Triad – in unity is strength.)

AT&T has already stepped forward and put forth a broadband proposal that NCNGN has endorsed.

Maybe NCNGN is one of the reasons why Google Fiber advanced the Triangle on its target list for deployment.

The Google execs didn’t pick Raleigh or Durham or Chapel Hill.

They picked the Triangle.

A new report from financial news and advice site WalletHub demonstrates – again – why Raleigh, Durham and the Triangle need to be united as one Metropolitan Statistical Area.

First, what is an MSA? Here’s the definition from the Census Bureau:

“Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas (metro and micro areas) are geographic entities delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for use by Federal statistical agencies in collecting, tabulating, and publishing Federal statistics. The term “Core Based Statistical Area” (CBSA) is a collective term for both metro and micro areas. A metro area contains a core urban area of 50,000 or more population, and a micro area contains an urban core of at least 10,000 (but less than 50,000) population. Each metro or micro area consists of one or more counties and includes the counties containing the core urban area, as well as any adjacent counties that have a high degree of social and economic integration (as measured by commuting to work) with the urban core.”

We have two urban cores – and a lot more. Our population is swelling. There certainly is a great deal of “social and economic integration” since our roads are packed.

According to 2013 Census estimates, the Raleigh MSA had a population of 1.2 million. Durham-Chapel Hill, which already are considered one MSA, numbered close to 535,000.

A combined Ralegfh-Durham MSA would number 2 million with a growth rate of 2 percent between 2012 and 2013, the Census Bureau says.

The Triangle region would rank 30th among combined MSA areas.

That’s gravitas. Weight. Recruiting power.

Let’s use it.

The Payoffs

A Triangle MSA would boost our region’s hopes of gaining more media attention and, hopefully, more jobs as well as talented people who want to relocate.

The Triangle becomes a larger market in terms of population as well as a bigger hub for information technology, life science and other high-quality jobs.

A united front for industrial recruitment could just mean more companies locating here or expanding current facilities.

And what would a united MSA with various Chambers, governments and other groups working together rather than against each other mean for the ongoing efforts to reignite Research Triangle Park?

The fight has been going on for decades, but as long as Raleigh competes against Durham (and let’s not forget Chapel Hill, Cary, Wake Forest, Morrisville and other communities have a big stake in this, too, progress is going to not be as fast as many leaders hope.

Now a united MSA won’t solve all development and recruitment issues, but better promotion would be a slam dunk better.

Look at the WalletHub data and envision how a united MSA data could be improved. Various strengths of each city could offset the weaknesses.

So if Raleigh-Durham or Durham-Raleigh, better known as the Triangle, cracks the top 10, think job seekers and corporations might take a longer look?

Here’s a look at the data:

Ranking Raleigh

Here’s how Raleigh ranked in seven different categories: