- Asheville metro unemployment rate 2.8% for May 2023
- Over 350 job seekers attended the $17 - $20 per Hour And Beyond Job Fair
- Child care could soon become harder to find and more expensive
- Without NC funding, child care workers in Asheville, Buncombe could see big pay cuts
- Study finds that Evergreen closure will cost WNC over 2,200 jobs
- A-B Tech Find Your Future College & Career Fair
- Not Enough Workers? Part 2: More Places to Find Them
- Not Enough Workers? Part 1: Look to Prisons
- Asheville #2 in the nation for remote work
- First Culinary Apprenticeship by A-B Tech, Givens Estates Proves Successful
- North Carolina Receives Federal Employment and Training Grant to Respond to Haywood County Paper Mill Layoffs
- Lots of Hiring, but Not So Much Working
- Work Local with Elkamet
- Transylvania County Schools announces new superintendent, Dr. Lisa Fletcher
- Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn Expanding in Asheville & Buncombe County
- NC State's Institute for Emerging Issues release recommendations for connecting underutilized workers to jobs
- Land of Sky Foreign Trade Zone #301 approved by US Department of Commerce
- WCU Capstone Project Request
- Asheville City Schools select Maggie Fehrman as superintendent
- Crafting Local Talent: bring out talent already in our community
- Asheville labor market overview
- WNC Regional Housing Forum - July 14
- NC's unemployment rate was 3.4% for May 2023
- State of Our Workforce WNC survey results from 795 employers released
- NCWorks Career Center Asheville workshops June and July 2023
- Mountain Area Careers
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Unemployment rate in Mountain Area region was 2.8% as of May 2023. As of April 2023, 4,885 more people working compared to May 2022. 349 less people working compared to April 2023.
Unemployed Individuals by month (Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania Counties):
May 2023 6,752
April 2023 6,466
March 2023 6,916
February 2023 6,696
January 2023 6,808
December 2022 6,285
November 2022 6,781
October 2022 7,343
September 2022 5,953
August 2022 6,938
July 2022 6,562
June 2022 7,591
May 2022 6,792
April 2022 6,198
March 2022 6,347
February 2022 6,603
January 2022 6,669
December 2021 5,584
November 2021 6,038
October 2021 6,547
September 2021 6,917
Total Labor Force 226,662
Total Employed Labor Force 220,314
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Mountain Area WDB Job Openings |
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Mountain Area WDB Labor Force |
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Mountain Area WDB Employed Individuals |
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Mountain Area WDB Unemployment Rate |
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Mountain Area WDB Unemployed Individuals |
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Asheville MSA Industry Jobs Compared to One Year Ago |
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Mountain Area WDB Taxable Retail Sales |
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Asheville metro unemployment rate at 2.8%, lowest of any NC metro |
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Asheville metro now (as of May 2023) the lowest unemployment of any NC metro at 2.8%. This rate is down 0.3% from the metro unemployment rate of 3.1% of one year ago. All counties in our region have an unemployment rate lower than the statewide rate of 3.4%. Buncombe has the lowest unemployment rate of any NC county at 2.7%.
Buncombe 2.7%
Haywood 2.9%
Henderson 2.9%
Madison 3.3%
Transylvania 3.3%
Monthly job growth by metro:
- Durham/Chapel Hill 0.6%
- Charlotte/Concord/Gastonia 0.5%
- Goldsboro 0.5%
- Rocky Mount 0.5%
- Greensboro-High Point 0.4%
- Jacksonville 0.4%
- New Bern 0.4%
- Raleigh 0.4%
- Wilmington 0.4%
- Asheville 0.1%
- Hickory/Lenoir/Morganton 0.1%
- Winston-Salem 0.1%
- Greenville 0.0%
- Fayetteville -0.1%
- Burlington -0.3%
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Over 350 job seekers attended the $17 - $20 per Hour And Beyond Job Fair |
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WNC job fair offers 3K+ positions starting pay $17 to $20+
More than 3,000 positions were up for grabs Thursday, June 29, at a job fair held at Western North Carolina Ag Center.
Read more
www.newsbreak.com
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Child care could soon become harder to find and more expensive |
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Child care could soon become harder to find & more expensive
The child care industry has struggled for years with both high costs for parents and low wages for teachers. Now, with COVID-era subsidies set to end later this year, there are worries this long-simmering problem could become a crisis.
Read more
www.wunc.org
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Without NC funding, child care workers in Asheville, Buncombe could see big pay cuts |
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Without funding, child care workers could see big pay cuts
“If they can't get child care, then they can't come to work and they can't show up,” said Zach Wallace, the vice president of public policy for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce
Read more
www.citizen-times.com
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Study finds Evergreen closure will cost WNC over 2,200 jobs |
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Strong partnerships and sustained efforts help Canton, WNC
After the closure of Pactiv Evergreen Packaging in Canton, the Southwestern Commission is helping navigate the recovery process in the region.
Read more
www.citizen-times.com
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A-B Tech Find Your Future College & Career Fair |
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Find Your Future College & Career Fair
July 13, 3-7 p.m., A-B Tech Main Campus
Read more
abtech.edu
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Not Enough Workers? Part 2: More Places to Find Them |
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Not Enough Workers? Part 2: More Places to Find Them
Finding employees these days is like a tricky game of Where's Waldo? The worker shortage gives employers an opportunity - and a cattle prod - to think differently about hiring historically marginalized groups.
Read more
www.boneconnector.com
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Not Enough Workers? Part 1: Look to Prisons |
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Former prisoners as workers - Connecting the ...
At a time when businesses are looking for workers, millions of formerly incarcerated people are looking for work. Research shows they make good employees.
Read more
www.boneconnector.com
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Asheville #2 in the nation for remote work |
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Looking for remote or hybrid jobs? These 20 U.S. cities...
U.S. job seekers are most likely to apply for remote jobs in larger metro areas, like Bend, Ore. and Asheville, NC.
Read more
www.linkedin.com
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First Culinary Apprenticeship by A-B Tech, Givens Estates Proves Successful |
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First Culinary Apprenticeship by A-B Tech, Givens Estates
A new culinary apprenticeship offered by A-B Tech Community College and Givens Estates, the first of its kind in the region, has announced its first successful candidate completion.
Read more
abtech.edu
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North Carolina Receives Federal Employment and Training Grant to Respond to Haywood County Paper Mill Layoffs |
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NC Receives Federal Employment and Training Grant
North Carolina has received approval for a $7.5 million federal workforce grant to help workers who were affected by the Pactiv Evergreen layoffs in Canton and Waynesville, Governor Roy Cooper has announced. $2.5 million will be made available...
Read more
www.commerce.nc.gov
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$8.6m in grants to help Canton, laid-off Evergreen workers
Several grants totaling about $8.6 million are going to the town of Canton to help in recovery efforts following the closure of the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill.
Read more
wlos.com
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Lots of Hiring, but Not So Much Working |
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Lots of Hiring, but Not So Much Working
Companies are resisting layoffs even as economic weakness looms.
Read more
www.wsj.com
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Transylvania County Schools announces new superintendent, Dr. Lisa Fletcher |
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Transylvania County Schools announces new superintendent
A native of Western North Carolina, Dr. Fletcher grew up in the Culberson area and attended Cherokee County Schools as a child. The school district says she has over 20 years of education experience in the Cherokee County Schools system.
Read more
wlos.com
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NC State's Institute for Emerging Issues release recommendations for connecting underutilized workers to jobs |
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Talent First Economics
The good news is there are talented North Carolinians throughout the state who are ready and willing to work. Unfortunately, they face historic and systemic barriers to finding and securing employment.
Read more
iei.ncsu.edu
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Land of Sky Foreign Trade Zone #301 approved by US Department of Commerce |
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The Land of Sky Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ #301) was approved by US Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on June 12, 2023 under Board Order #2144. FTZ #301 will initially serve Henderson County and parts of Buncombe County, Haywood County, Jackson County, and Transylvania County with oversight from US Customs and Border Protection officers from the Port of Greenville-Spartanburg (South Carolina). We sincerely appreciate US Customs and Border Protection Port Director Henson for his willingness to share his officers to serve businesses located in FTZ #301.
Businesses approved for FTZ status can use special Customs procedures to help save on duties, taxes, and fees on imported merchandise, along with other benefits. The FTZ program aims to promote U.S. competitiveness and activity by removing some of the disadvantages of manufacturing in the U.S. The Land of Sky Foreign-Trade Zone will aid businesses in this region become more globally competitive and will help place them on a level playing field with their foreign competitors.
The Economic Development Partnership of NC projected a Foreign-Trade Zone serving just Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, and Transylvania Counties would add at least 300 jobs and a minimum of $100 million investment.
North Carolina is currently home to four Foreign Trade Zone programs serving most of the state’s counties; unfortunately, none of those programs can include the twenty unserved Western North Carolina counties. Land of Sky Regional Council is working in partnership with the Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) to establish a US Customs Port of Entry at AVL. Establishing this Port of Entry will allow FTZ #301 to expand its service area to include all unserved counties in Western North Carolina as well as allow AVL to clear flights originating in a foreign nation.
Foreign-Trade Zones are an integral part of North Carolina’s economy. More than 10,000 North Carolina jobs are supported by current FTZ users with exports of over $75 million. Western North Carolina is home to over 1,000 manufacturing firms representing around 40,000 good-paying jobs. Industry leaders such as Altec, Baxter Healthcare, BorgWarner Turbo Systems, GE Aviation, Cummins Meritor, UPM Raflatac, and Snap-On Tools contribute to job creation and retention in WNC. Foreign-Trade Zone #301 will provide WNC companies another opportunity to expand their business while giving our economic developers another tool to help existing firms expand and new businesses locate in the region.
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WCU Capstone Projects Request |
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Asheville City Schools selects Maggie Fehrman as superintendent |
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Redux: ACS selects Maggie Fehrman as superintendent
The Asheville City Board of Education named Maggie Fehrman as superintendent of the school district during a special called meeting June 8. "I am thrilled to be joining the Asheville City Schools community. I can't think of a better place to serve."
Read more
mountainx.com
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Crafting Local Talent: bring out talent already in our community |
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Crafting Local Talent
Building Your Community's Workforce with the Workers You Already Have “The number of missing workers exceeds the labor shortage. Amazingly, if we were able to fully tap into missing workers, we could potentially end the labor shortage.”
Read more
lightcast.io
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Asheville metro labor market overview and the State of the Land of Sky Economy |
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AVL metro labor market overview
Labor Market Conditions & Implications for Mountain Area Workforce System presentation by Jeff DeBellis, Director of Economic & Policy Analysis & Neil Harrington, Strategic Data Analyst, NC Dept of Commerce, Labor & Economic Analysis Division (LEAD)
Read more
www.mountainareaworks.org
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The State of the Land of Sky Economy
Where are we now? the state of the Land of Sky economy presentation by Jeff DeBellis, Director of Economic & Policy Analysis & Neil Harrington, Strategic Data Analyst, NC Dept of Commerce, Labor & Economic Analysis Division (LEAD)
Read more
www.mountainareaworks.org
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WNC Regional Housing Forum |
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North Carolina's unemployment rate was 3.4% for May 2023 |
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North Carolina's May Employment Figures Released
The state's seasonally adjusted May 2023 unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, remaining unchanged from April's revised rate. The national rate increased 0.3 of a percentage point to 3.7 percent. NC's unemployment rate was unchanged from a year ago.
Read more
www.commerce.nc.gov
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State of Our Workforce WNC survey results from 795 employers released |
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Overall, respondents to the 2022 survey anticipate hiring between 22,150 and 44,140 total new employees in the next three years.
- Healthcare and Manufacturing Industry employers anticipate the largest hiring needs.
- Employers seek workers with degrees and credentials.
- Employers will rely on on-the-job training to develop and strengthen existing workforces.
- Employers cite housing cost/availability, wages and child care as the most significant obstacles to talent recruitment and retention.
- Employers continue to hire through friends and networks, but are also utilizing online job portals to source their talent.
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The average talent pipeline rating was 2.83 out of 5.
- Internships are the most preferred method of K-12 student engagement but methods vary by industry.
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The State of Our Workforce: Western NC
Our goal with The State of Our Workforce: Western NC is to identify solutions to close the skills gap and strengthen our local talent pool -which will ensure that companies in our area have the resources and people they need to succeed.
Read more
www.ashevillechamber.org
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Challenges mountain biz owners likely to face in coming yrs
A new survey has provided insight into the successes and challenges of the workforce in Western North Carolina.
Read more
wlos.com
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NCWorks Career Center Asheville workshops June and July 2023 |
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NC Jobs | Mountain Area Careers | Western North Carolina
Create Your Future in the Mountains of Western North Carolina. Find jobs from great employers. Earn a steady living and advance your career.
Read more
www.mountainareacareers.org
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