Macon’s distressed ranking fell from 84 to 80, with one being the most distressed. The county missed out on repeating as a Tier 3 by one slot.
After being classified a Tier 3 county in 2021 by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Macon County returned to a Tier 2 Ranking for 2022.
During the regularly scheduled Macon County Economic Development Commission meeting, EDC director Tommy Jenkins said although the county fell a tier, it will make it easier for the county to qualify for state funding.
“There are several grant programs in the state that use those rankings as qualifiers,” Jenkins said. “As it should be, there is more money out there for more distressed counties.”
Macon’s distressed ranking fell from 84 to 80, with one being the most distressed. The county missed out on repeating as a Tier 3 by one slot.
County Tiers are calculated using four factors:
• Average unemployment rate
• Median household income
• Percentage growth in population
• Adjusted property tax base per capita
Macon County’s average unemployment rate was 4.48 percent from Oct. 20 to Sept. 21. The county’s median household income for 2019 was $46,279. The percentage growth of the population from July 2017 to July 2020 was 3.85 percent and the adjusted property tax base per capita for the fiscal year 21-22, was $218,595.
According to Jenkins, the unemployment rate in Macon County fell to 2.8 percent in October, which is the lowest among the seven southwestern counties. Along with the unemployment rate going down, the labor force in the county has increased from 15,998 in Sept. 2020, to 16,252 in Sept. 2021.
“It is good to have all of our available workers working,” Jenkins said. “On the flip side of that, as everyone probably knows, a lot of our local businesses are hurting. They are still out there looking for employees. We are like everyone regionally, statewide and nationally. We are short on workforce. That continues to be a problem for our local economy.”
In the past 90 days, Western Carolina University has the most open jobs with 289. Haywood Regional Medical Center is hiring 260, Asplundh Tree Expert Company is hiring 133, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is hiring 105, Angel Medical Center is hiring 103, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort is hiring 101, the University of North Carolina is hiring 92 and MedWest is hiring 89.
The most jobs hiring in the county in the last 90 days are registered nurses at 244, followed by nursing assistants at 65, cooks, restaurant at 63, first line supervisors of food prep and servers at 61, retail salespersons at 59, food prep and servers including fast food at 57, licensed practical and vocational nurses at 53 and customer service representatives at 49.
The EDC also discussed that Macon County was awarded a Golden Leaf Foundation Grant for the Golden LEAF Site Identification Program.
“The Site Program supports communities in identifying potential sites for economic development and provides funds to enable completion of due diligence on sites already identified, or to extend public utilities to or conduct rough grading and clearing of sites for which due diligence has been completed,” Jenkins said. “The three phases of the SITE program are identification, due diligence and development.”
The Golden LEAF Foundation Board of Directors awarded grants to 11 projects in Macon, Montgomery, Halifax, Alexander, Yancey, Cumberland, Duplin, Franklin, McDowell and Rockingham counties.
Jenkins said that development continues along the 64/441 bypass corridor.
“Vannoy Construction has been chosen as the general contractor for the new Ingles retail development at the Old Walmart site and work progresses with the new Chick-Fil-A, as well as the new HCA hospital,” Jenkins said. “Planning continues on additional development adjacent to Chick-Fil-A.”
The next EDC meeting is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2022, at 5:30 p.m., at SCC-Macon.
- By Christopher Lugo