Asheville Metro Economic Report – 2016 First Quarter

Johnson Price Sprinkle PA (JPS) a leading accounting firm in western North Carolina, providing innovative solutions in taxation, assurance and business advisory services, created specifically for small to mid-sized, closely-held and family-owned businesses, is pleased to provide Asheville Metropolitan Area’s 2016 First Quarter Report.

Highlights:

Strong employment growth continues in the four-county Asheville metro (Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties), placing it as the second fastest growing metro in the state. The unemployment rate remains lowest among all metros in the state. Existing home sales set a new all-time first quarter record.

Monthly year-to-year job growth continues uninterrupted now for more than five and one-half years. The metro area is up 5,200 more jobs than one-year earlier, earning an average growth rate of 2.9 percent.The area’s employment growth rate over the first quarter of 2016 places it second among the state’s 15 metros.

Averaging 4.6 percent, Asheville metro’s average unemployment rate for the quarter is lowest among all of the state’s fifteen metros. The metro has held the lowest unemployment rate in the state for twenty-two of the last twenty-four months….    READ MORE