Physician staffing firm to move from Durham to Raleigh, plans 155 new jobs at 200K wages
Weatherby Locums won’t have a long trip.
The staffing company which specializes in matching physicians with short-term coverage needs announced Tuesday it will shift its current Triangle workforce from Durham to Raleigh in a move that promises to create 155 jobs at an average salary of over $204,000.
A subsidiary of CHG Healthcare, which is owned by two private equity firms, Weatherby currently leases office space in South Durham, close to the airport and just east of Research Triangle Park. It has 374 employees in all of North Carolina.
On Tuesday, the state Economic Investment Committee awarded Weatherby an incentive worth up to $1.8 million if the company fulfills its hiring and investment commitments.
These include retaining its current North Carolina workforce size and hiring 155 more workers in Wake County by the end of the decade. Additionally, the company pledged to invest $7.6 million by the end of next year at a 45,000-square-foot office in Raleigh.
In health care, a locum (or locum tenens) is a health provider who substitutes for clinicians who become temporarily unavailable. According to a post on Weatherby’s website, the locum industry first developed in the 1970s to serve rural communities. The service started in Utah, where CHG Healthcare is based.
CHG Healthcare says it is today the largest U.S. physician staffing firm. In 2012, the company was acquired by the private equity firms Ares and Leonard Green and Partners.
Most of Weatherby’s future Wake County hires will be sales positions, the N.C. Department of Commerce announced during Tuesday’s EIC meeting. The company requested up to 15 of these new positions be filled by remote workers living elsewhere in North Carolina. The state did not announce the median salaries for the projected 155 positions though noted their $204,000 average is well above Wake County’s average wage of $74,866.
According to the commerce department, Weatherby selected Raleigh for its expansion over another finalist site in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The state listed Raleigh’s cost of living, the local labor pool, the region’s long-term growth potential, and taxpayer incentives as the factors behind the decision.
In addition to the state’s incentive package, Wake County and the city of Raleigh combined to offer the staffing firm $120,000 to incentivize the relocation and new hiring.
This story was originally published October 8, 2024 at 1:54 PM with the headline "Physician staffing firm to move from Durham to Raleigh, plans 155 new jobs at 200K wages."
