Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
11 <br /> <br />Table 1. North Carolina Regional Unemployment Rate Forecasts. <br />Region October 2017 Rate Forecasted October 2018 Rate <br />Asheville 3.3% 3.0% <br />Burlington 3.8% 3.4% <br />Charlotte 3.9% 3.5% <br />Durham 3.6% 3.2% <br />Fayetteville 5.2% 4.6% <br />Greensboro 4.3% 3.9% <br />Greenville 4.5% 3.8% <br />Goldsboro 4.6% 4.1% <br />Hickory 4.0% 3.8% <br />Jacksonville 4.7% 4.4% <br />New Bern 4.3% 3.8% <br />Raleigh 3.6% 3.2% <br />Rocky Mount 6.0% 5.4% <br />Wilmington 3.9% 3.5% <br />Winston-Salem 4.0% 3.7% <br />Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; author’s forecasts. <br /> <br /> <br />There is no expectation that either the household income divide or the geographic <br />economic divide in North Carolina will significantly change in 2018. The forces providing <br />advantages to large metropolitan areas – transportation linkages, vibrant downtowns attracting a <br />college-educated workforce, international ties, and a 21st century economy based on higher <br />education, technology, finance – will still give those regions strong advantages. Also, <br />technology will continue to “disrupt” the occupational market by producing machinery and <br />programs that can increasingly substitute for a broader range of human-performed tasks. Those <br />with cognitive abilities not (yet!) able to be performed by technology will be rewarded in the job <br />market, while those workers competing with technology-based applications will find it more <br />difficult to be valued. <br /> So, 2018 will be a further year of economic growth in North Carolina, with both income <br />and employment improving. But beneath the broad statewide picture will linger economic <br />disparities that are yet to be closed. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />17