Business

Buncombe has lowest, Henderson County second lowest jobless rate (2)

By Bill Moss, Published: September 9, 2019

The Mountain Area Workforce Region region of the state made up of Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 3.5%.

Buncombe County has the lowest rate in the state at 3.3%, followed by Henderson County, at 3.6%. Madison County is at 4.1% and Transylvania County is at 4.0% . All four counties in the region are below the state unemployment rate for July 2019 of 4.4%.

For 53 consecutive months Buncombe County has maintained the lowest unemployment rate among all 100 counties and for 53 consecutive months the Mountain Area Workforce region as well as the Asheville metro have maintained the lowest unemployment rate. Despite the region's low unemployment rate, the number of unemployed people has increased in the past year, to 8,345. As of July 2019, there were 8,300 more jobs in the region and 11,443 more people working compared to July 2018. Total labor force is 222,524.