NC Justice Center highlights Asheville in unemployment analysis

From the NC Justice Center:

RALEIGH (March 22, 2013) — The Division of Employment Security released new January unemployment numbers for each of North Carolina’s metro areas this morning. While the rise in unemployment across all 14 metros from December to January is somewhat concerning, seasonal fluctuations in hiring make the year-over-year comparisons from January 2012 to January 2013 far more important to watch.

Here are Five Fast Facts about how the state’s metros stack up against each other according to these new jobs numbers:

Fact 1. Top 3 metros with biggest drop in the unemployment rate since January 2012:

Hickory (dropped from 11.8 to 11.3)
Raleigh (from 8.2 to 8)
Charlotte (from 10.1 to 10)

Fact 2. Top 5 metros with biggest increases in the unemployment rate since January 2012:

Goldsboro (increased from 9 to 9.8)
Fayetteville (increased from 10.1 to 10.8)
Jacksonville (increased from 8.9 to 9.6)
Greenville (increased from 9.3 to 9.9)
Rocky Mount (increased frin 13.6 to 14.1)

Fact 3. Metros with top 5 job growth since January 2012

Asheville (3.6 percent job growth)
Charlotte (3.1 percent job growth)
Wilmington (2.5 percent job growth)
Greenville (2.3 percent job growth)
Goldsboro (2.3 percent job growth)

Fact 4. Metros with Top 3 growth in unemployed workers since January 2012

Goldsboro (12.2 percent increase in number of unemployed)
Jacksonville (11.5 percent increase in number of unemployed)
Greenville (9.7 percent increase in number of unemployed)

Fact 5. Top 3 metros with largest share of state’s employment growth since January 2012

Charlotte (38.5 percent of state’s job growth)
Raleigh (17.5 percent of state’s job growth)
Asheville (10.3 percent of state’s job growth)

“While the long term trend in state’s economy is clearly moving in the right direction, much of this progress is not being shared evenly across all of the state’s metros,” said Allan Freyer, Public Policy Analyst with the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center. “The big increases in unemployment over the past year in Goldsboro, Fayetteville and Jacksonville are especially concerning, as is the fact that just three metros — Charlotte, Raleigh and Asheville — account more more than half of the state’s overall job growth.”