“People are just calling left and right,” says James Colvin, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Asheville. “Last week I must’ve had seven or eight calls. I hate turning anyone away but I had to do that.” Relationships have always had to navigate disputes, both large and small. But in his 30 years of […]
The N.C. Division of Employment Security announced the approval of Disaster Unemployment Assistance benefits on Sept. 10. The move follows a federal major disaster declaration Sept. 8 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and White House at the request of Gov. Roy Cooper.
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 […]
Employers, especially restaurants and other hospitality businesses, still struggle to find employees in a rebounding economy.
“But I think many in our community are overlooking a segment of our economy that can provide a very good and stable income for someone who may not be college material or is unwilling to be saddled with $50,000-plus student debt to obtain a degree.”
As of December 2020, there were 21,391 unique job postings in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties. But many of the available jobs require higher levels of education or training than those currently unemployed possess.
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.
“This lockdown has put more people in physical, mental, emotional and economic jeopardy than the virus ever could have.”
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.
At a March 27 press conference, Gov. Roy Cooper announced a stay-at-home order, effective throughout North Carolina at 5 p.m. Monday, March 30, that will stay in effect until Wednesday, April 29 — nearly three weeks longer than the duration of Buncombe County’s recently enacted mandate.
Buncombe County and the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area, once again, are situated at the lowest end of the scale when it comes to statewide unemployment rates — (and that’s a good thing).
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 […]
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 […]
Gov. Pat McCrory spoke to the Council of Independent Business Owners this afternoon, asserting he was “stepping on some toes” to lower taxes and make the state run more like a business.
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 […]
While the Asheville metropolitan area added jobs in November, unemployment rose as well, according to figures released by the state’s Labor and Economic Analysis Division.
Those on the hunt for a new job should put the 7th Annual Homecoming Job Fair on their schedule.
Unemployment in the Asheville area dropped to 7.1 percent — among the lowest in the state — in September, as the government, educational, and health sectors gained jobs.
Despite job losses in the public sector, unemployment declined in the Asheville metropolitan area in July, part of an overall downward trend over the past year.
Coming off this week’s cover story on the union organizing drive at the Sitel call center, this is a discussion thread for any topic related to jobs, wages, and working conditions in Asheville.
On Monday, July 9, Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy will travel to the nation’s capital for a meeting about urban economic mobility. The meeting will take place at the White House in the Roosevelt Room.
