By james art Weatherby Locums will not have a long journey.
The staffing company, which specializes in finding doctors with short-term coverage needs, announced Tuesday that it will move its current Triangle workforce from Durham to Raleigh in a move that promises to create 155 jobs at an average salary of more than $204 000.
A subsidiary of CHG Healthcare, which is owned by two private equity firms, Weatherby currently leases office space in South Durham, near the airport and just east of Research Triangle Park. There are 374 employees throughout North Carolina.
On Tuesday, the state Economic Investment Committee awarded Weatherby an incentive worth up to $1.8 million if the company meets its hiring and investment commitments.
These include keeping the North Carolina workforce at its current size and hiring 155 more workers in Wake County by the end of the decade. The company also pledged to invest $7.6 million by the end of next year in a 45,000-square-foot office in Raleigh.
In healthcare, a locum (or locum tenens) is a healthcare provider who fills in for clinicians who become temporarily unavailable. According to a post on Weatherby’s website, the deli industry first developed in the 1970s to serve rural communities. The service launched in Utah, where CHG Healthcare is based.
CHG Healthcare says it is the largest physician recruitment firm in the US today. In 2012, the company was acquired by private equity firms Ares and Leonard Green and Partners.
Most of Weatherby’s future employees in Wake County will be sales positions, the NC Department of Commerce announced during Tuesday’s EIC meeting. The company has requested that up to 15 of those new positions be filled by remote workers living elsewhere in North Carolina. The state did not release average salaries for the projected 155 positions, but noted that their $204,000 average was well above Wake County’s average salary of $74,866.
According to the sales department, Weatherby chose Raleigh for its expansion over another finalist site in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The state cited Raleigh’s cost of living, the local workforce, the region’s long-term growth potential and taxpayer incentives as factors behind the decision.
In addition to the state’s incentive package, Wake County and the city of Raleigh have teamed up to offer the staffing firm $120,000 to incentivize the move and new hires.
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