Growth in Greenville.

• Author: Manuel, John
• Position: North Carolina town offers diverse employment opportunities - Statistical Data Included

Once considered a slow-paced agricultural town, Greenville offers diverse employment options to its burgeoning population.

There's something unusual about the pie chart showing the major contributors to Greenville's economy. It's divided into nearly equal segments: State government, $185 million each year; Pitt County Memorial Hospital, $150 million. Retail sales are $147 million, and health services, $106 million. Only manufacturing stands out at $320 million. Employment figures balance out much the same with government employing 16,003; wholesale/retail, 14,873; services, 10,504, and manufacturing, 9,973. Greenville's economy is remarkably balanced and diversified, which earned it the No. 23 spot in Money magazine's 1996 national listing of "Great Towns with Great Jobs."

"No matter what comes down the line in terms of the economy, Greenville will be all right," says Al Delia, assistant vice chancellor for regional development at East Carolina University. "We have strength in diversity."

It's an enviable situation for any community, and a helpful one for Greenville, which many North Carolinians see as a sleepy, agricultural town. While the state's attention has been focused on booming cities such as Charlotte, Greenville's population grew 16.4% from 1980 to 1990. Employment rose 41% from 1988 to 1998. Today, one is as likely to meet a research chemist at a Greenville convenience store as a farmer.

Many factors account for the growth, including the presence of East Carolina University. Founded in 1907, ECU is the third-largest university in North Carolina, with more than 17,500 students. (The school projects enrollment to increase to 28,000 in the next decade.) ECU offers 183 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its II professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. The School of Business is one of only 20% of the nation's business schools to have both its undergraduate and graduate programs accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. The School of Business offers graduate courses at night and during the day to allow employees of local companies to earn an MBA while working full time.

Local businesses can obtain consultative services through ECU's Regional Development Institute. RDI draws upon the expertise of ECU's faculty, students and professional staff to assist clients with a variety of business and community development services, including grant applications and funding-source identification, site-design plans and feasibility projects, research and information statistics and auditorium space in ECU's Willis Building.

While ECU is considered the premier university in Eastern North Carolina, Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville is the medical hub. During the 1997-98 fiscal year, PCMH cared for 37,718 inpatients and 200,965 outpatients, earning revenues of $355 million. The hospital...