ASHEVILLE – After falling more than 3 percentage points in November to 7.2%, Buncombe County’s unemployment rate is no longer the highest in the state, according to preliminary figures released Jan. 3 by the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Tropical Storm Helene caused heavy damage in Asheville’s Biltmore Village, a popular tourist draw.
Despite the decrease, the county still had the state’s second highest unemployment rate in November. Out of a labor force of nearly 150,000, more than 10,500 county residents were out of work.
The statewide rate came in at 3.7% for November, up slightly from the previous month.
In October, according to revised data, Buncombe’s unemployment rate spiked nearly 8 percentage points to more than 10.4% after Tropical Storm Helene ripped through the region Sept. 27, destroying and damaging many area businesses, disrupting water service, and putting thousands out of work. In one single month, Buncombe County went from having the lowest unemployment rate in the state to the highest.
Helene also hit during what’s typically a lucrative time of year for businesses and workers serving the tourist industry, which generates $3 billion annually and accounts for 20% of the local economy annually.
In November, Buncombe County’s Tourism Development Authority estimated that the county would see a 70% decline in tourism in the last quarter of 2024, or a $584 million loss in revenue, the Citizen Times previously reported.
Underemployment
The November unemployment rate in the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties, also decreased from 8.5% in October to 6.1% in November. Still, it’s the highest rate in the state. Of the more than 240,000 people that comprise the area’s total labor force, nearly 15,000 were unemployed in November.
In Yancey County the rate dropped to 6.2%, a 2.5 percentage point decrease from October.
At 8.9%, Mitchell County now has the highest unemployment rate in the state, dropping 1.4 percentage points from the previous month’s revised figure of 10.3%.
Despite lower unemployment rates, the latest figures, which aren’t seasonally adjusted, still show the devastating toll Helene is taking on the region’s economy and its workers three months later.
In the first week after Helene hit, more than 2,400 workers in the leisure and hospitality sector, nearly 40% of all claimants, filed for unemployment for the first time in Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counites, according to the state’s unemployment insurance claims dashboard. Nearly 32% of the 6,300 first-time filers that week worked in food preparation or serving related jobs.
Wedge Brewing Company sits in ruin weeks after Tropical Storm Helene devastated the River Arts District in Asheville, NC., on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
These workers continue to struggle, even with then-Gov. Roy Cooper increasing maximum unemployment benefits from $350 a week to $600 and many restaurants and hotels reopening.
And so are their employers, who typically rely on a surge of visitors to the region in October, November and December to sustain what’s typically slower winter months. Though state lawmakers have passed three funding bills totaling more than $1 billion for Helene recovery efforts, none provide direct grants to small businesses.
Vicki Meath, the executive director of Just Economics Western North Carolina, said she wasn’t surprised that the unemployment rates in the region decreased, though she doesn’t believe the figures capture what’s really happening in the community, where many workers are underemployed or working limited hours, worried their jobs might not survive the winter.
“We’re up for a challenge the next couple of months,” Meath said. “I’m concerned it could result in more displacement and lost jobs.”
Meghan Millea, an economics professor at East Carolina University, said there’s typically a shift in the types of employment available in the aftermath of a natural disaster like Helene. Construction jobs will often increase, attracting workers from out of state or other areas, while jobs in the service sector, staffed by locals, decrease, skewing the storm’s true disruptive effect on the local economy.
“The numbers may look like you have employment – that employment hasn’t dipped – but it’s the composition of it that changes substantially,” she said.
Millea, whose research focuses on the economic effect of natural hazards like hurricanes and flooding, said equity issues typically emerge, too. Often, those who are “relatively well-off” are able to recover quickly, while others who have to rely on “public policies,” like government aid, whether from Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance programs or state and local government, are left “in a suspended state for a longer period of time.”
Some people may recover in six months, she said, others it may take years, citing Hurricane Florence, which hit eastern North Carolina in 2018. Still, more than six years later, many survivors of Florence remain displaced.
“It’s disruptive to their life in terms of their capacity to thrive mentally and be productive in their work,” Millea said. “When you’re living in substandard conditions, it’s a very difficult time.”
More: After Helene, Buncombe County unemployment rate more than triples, now highest in NC
More: Asheville restaurateurs prepare for a potential ‘mass exodus’ of food service workers
Jacob Biba is the county watchdog reporter at the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe County’s unemployment rate no longer highest in state
