Asheville has the second lowest unemployment rate of all North Carolina urban areas, according to a PDF report released on July 28 by the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina. Durham/Chapel Hill’s rate is 8 percent, compared to Asheville’s 8.2 percent.
And Buncombe, Henderson and Polk counties have the lowest unemployment of Western North Carolina counties, the report shows.
The following chart and table compare North Carolina’s metro-area unemployment rates:
Employment growth in Asheville is being driven — over the year — by the leisure and hospitality sector, and pulled down by the mining, logging and construction sector as well as the information sector. Here’s the break-down, looking at changes over the year and over the month:
Asheville shows the fastest improvement in employment of any metro area when the change is viewed over the month. Metro-area changes in unemployment are shown two ways below.
A county-by-county view of unemployment:
In WNC, the rates show that unemployment increased slightly for most of the region’s 17 counties between May and June, according to an analysis of the report by Carolina Public Press. Across the region, the rate held steady for only one county, Graham, the report notes. The top increase was in Rutherford County, which increased one percentage point, pushing the rate to 14.6 percent and the third highest unemployment in the state in June.
Across the state, unemployment increased in 91 counties, three remained the same, and six decreased. Seven WNC counties had rates higher than the statewide rate of 10.4 percent.
To download the full PDF report from ESC, go here.
