Staffing shortages continue to plague local restaurant­s

Editor’s note: Local restaurants continue to adjust operations based on health guidelines. Check individual websites for the latest updated requirements. Despite Gov. Roy Cooper’s May 14 executive order lifting all mandatory capacity and gathering limits, Sean Piper, owner of West Asheville’s Jargon, has kept his restaurant’s seating capacity at 50%. The decision is unrelated to […]

WNC colleges and universiti­es return to in-person classes

While Asheville and Buncombe County K-12 schools are planning to start the academic year with heavy reliance on remote learning due to COVID-19, the area’s colleges and universities are taking a more aggressive approach in returning to campus. Western North Carolina’s higher learning institutions are bringing back students from across the state and around the country. 

Neeraj Kebede at Addissae Ethiopian Restaurant

Biz briefs: Buncombe continues to see high COVID-19 unemployme­nt, business closures

The county, North Carolina’s seventh-most populous, was fifth on the state’s list of counties by number of pandemic-related first-time unemployment insurance claimants in April. Of those claims, 21.7% were from workers in the leisure and hospitality industries, while 15.6% were from the trade, transportation and utilities sector.

Job statistics don’t tell the whole story for local economy

On Nov. 21, Gov. Pat McCrory’s office released a statement saying that all of the jobs North Carolina lost during the Great Recession — some 62,000 positions — had been gained back. Not long after, local unemployment numbers started coming in, showing that Asheville had the lowest unemployment numbers among the North Carolina metro areas at […]

Asheville Metro Area shows lowest unemployme­nt numbers in the state

According to the October County and Area Employment Figures, released Dec. 9 by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the Asheville area shows the fewest unemployment cases for any metropolitan statistical area in the state. Buncombe County’s unemployment rate fell from 4.4 percent in the spring to 4.0 (4.1 when grouped with other counties included […]

We want a fair budget

In response to the state budget proposal, the North Carolina Student Power Union finds it necessary to remind Gov. Pat McCrory, state budget director James “Art” Pope, and the members of the state Legislature of the purpose of our state government: to serve all the people of North Carolina. Massive budget cuts to education and […]