From CPP: Asheville’s jobless rate — North Carolina’s highest — is ‘new and unwelcome’ territory

By Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press

Six months later and still out of a job. That’s the reality for nearly 13,000 Asheville residents half a year after Tropical Storm Helene struck Western North Carolina.

In the wake of the historic storm, hundreds of businesses closed. The region’s multibillion dollar tourism sector took a devastating hit. Thousands of people were severed from their jobs. Many have not returned to the workforce.

Asheville, a city of roughly 95,000 people, typically boasts the lowest unemployment rate of North Carolina’s municipalities.

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But not now. Not after Helene.

As of January, the most recent figures available, Asheville had a 6% unemployment rate — the state’s highest —  according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Clark Duncan, director of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, calls the ranking a “new and unwelcome accolade.”

Help wanted in Asheville

Rocky Mount and Fayetteville, each hovering around 5% unemployment, are giving Asheville a run for its money.

The capital city of Raleigh is home to North Carolina’s lowest jobless rate at 3.2%.

And statewide, that number is a respectable 4%.

But Asheville’s high rate of unemployment doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t jobs in the region, according to one expert.

“Buncombe County certainly does not have a jobs problem,” said Andrew Berger-Gross, a senior economist for the N.C. Department of Commerce. “What they have is an unemployment problem. We see employers hiring, but there is a large contingent of workers who have not returned to work.”

First, there is what economists call a “matching problem,” meaning the jobs that need to be filled do not match the skills and interests of the unemployed.

There are 20,000 job openings in the region, according to Nathan Ramsey, director of the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board. Sectors like health care and manufacturing are on track for normal hiring numbers. Plus, Helene actually created jobs in certain industries, such as construction and debris removal.

“You may be the best bartender in the world, the best server, the best cook — but does that mean you want to drive an 18-wheeler up mountain roads?,” Ramsey asked. “Does that mean you can do — or want to do — construction? Probably not.”

Second, just because someone needs a job doesn’t mean that person is ready or able to get one.

“It is safe to assume that a lot of those unemployed workers might be facing barriers to reemployment — like losing your home or losing your car,” Berger-Gross explained. “Frankly, some people might still be struggling with the emotional trauma of the hurricane’s destruction.

“A lot of these people may need help putting their lives back together before they are ready to return to the workforce.”

Though unemployment rates rose in Asheville and Buncombe County in winter months, the number of open positions in the region is a positive sign for an economic rebound, as are increased retail sales and hotel occupancy.

But there are concerns that the state’s disaster unemployment program might not be working as it should.

“I get a lot of emails from folks who are kind of struggling with getting unemployment assistance,” state Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, told Carolina Public Press. “Either they’ve applied for it and they haven’t gotten it, or they’ve been turned down because they’re back at work a little bit, but not full time.”

Mayfield is hopeful that tourists will arrive to watch wildflowers bloom across the Appalachians this spring. But wildfires across Western North Carolina may jeopardize those plans.

Smoke signals

Closed trails and roads, mandatory evacuations and poor air quality have scared off springtime tourists and kept locals from their typical routines.

Adventure tourism businesses in the area aren’t operating, putting tour guides and other personnel out of work, said Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof. Evacuation orders in her county were lifted early last week, but Brevard’s annual bike race — Assault on the Carolinas — was canceled due to the fires.

While most economic indicators in Western North Carolina have been trending positive, an additional natural disaster, such as these fires, threatens to stall recovery before the region can fully rebound.

There is an emotional impact of the wildfires as well. The din of helicopters above the mountains is a painful reminder of the panic and trauma of Helene. Plus, the downed trees and mangled forest floors from the storm make the blazes worse.

“Some people were really triggered by the fact that there was another threat to their home and their health on the six-month anniversary of Helene,” said Leah Matthews, a UNC Asheville economics professor. “You have people thinking, ‘I’m just starting to rebuild this house and now I need to evacuate again.’”

In the wake of wildfire and flood, economic recovery in the mountains will require patience and a willingness to adapt. The community is wrestling with fundamental questions about its identity and future.

“The elephant in the room is that the region suffered a historic tragedy, and you can’t push rewind on the VCR of life,” Berger-Gross said. “You can’t go back to a time before the disaster hit — that is why it is a tragedy. All of us are trying to move to a better future for Asheville and for Western North Carolina more broadly. But will things be exactly like they were before the hurricane? No, they can’t be.”

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.