The North Carolina Department of Commerce unveiled its 2020 economic development tier designations on Monday and for the second consecutive year the news was positive for Macon County and Western North Carolina as a region.
Macon County will remain a Tier 2 county in terms of economic development in the coming year.
“Based on the way the tier designations are configured, Tier 2 is where we belong, and being able to keep that designation for a second consecutive year is a good thing for our county as a whole,” Macon County Economic Development Director Tommy Jenkins said. “When you look at our low unemployment rate and our property tax base per capita, those particular metrics are very strong.”
The NC Department of Commerce developed the tier ranking system to determine the economic health of each of the state’s 100 counties. The top 20 counties are marked as Tier 3, the next 40 counties make up Tier 2 and the 40 economically weakest counties are deemed Tier 1.
Tier rankings are based on four factors – average monthly unemployment rate, median household income, percentage population growth and adjusted property tax per capita from the previous tax year.
According to statistics provided by the NC Department of Commerce, Macon County ranked fourth in the state in adjusted property tax per capita, 27th in percentage of population growth (3.7 percent), 48th in average unemployment rate (4.15 percent) and 64th in median household income ($42,456) out of 100 counties.
“When you look at the counties that make up Tier 3, they are the ones you would guess, like Mecklenburg and surrounding, Wake and surrounding, Buncombe, New Hanover, etc. – primarily counties with major population centers,” Jenkins said. “Tier 2 is counties more comparable to ours, Jackson, Transylvania, Polk, Cherokee, and so on.”
Macon County was a long-standing Tier 2 county (since 2007) until a drop to Tier 1 in 2014. Macon regained Tier 2 status in 2018.
Eight counties will change tiers in 2020, but none of those were in Western North Carolina. Among the far-west counties, only Haywood will be Tier 3 in 2020. Macon, Jackson, Clay and Cherokee are each designated Tier 2. Swain and Graham counties will each be Tier 1.
