Buncombe by the numbers: some good news, some bad news.

These figures are from the NC Budget and Tax Center, part of the NC Justice Center. They recently put out a series of fact sheets on employment, income, and poverty, and here are some interesting figures about our beloved Buncombe:

1. I don't know what to make of this, but median household income in Buncombe equaled $41,735 in 2006, slightly less than the statewide mhi (approx. $42,630). At the same time, though, per-capita income in Buncombe came in at $24,155, which is $1210 more than the statewide per-capita figure (or, for those of you who prefer percentages, about 5% over the figure statewide). I'm not sure what to make of those two bits of data, especially since we're talking household vs. individual income. It could mean that we have a higher than average number of single-earner households in Buncombe (which would depress our median household income), or it could mean that there's some sort of income inequality, i.e., that there are some very wealthy people at the top of the range who are pushing the average up some. And there could be any number of other things going on. I'd love to know more. On the whole, though, things could be worse. And I'm surprised to see that the "Asheville Tax" isn't bigger.

2. The report says that the average working family with children needs to earn $15.99/hour to cover basic living expenses in Buncombe. $16/hour sounds like a great job for Asheville. I'm guessing that if there were two wage-earners in the family, they could earn less per hour, but that doesn't mean that life would be easy: fully a third of Buncombe residents had incomes less than twice the federal poverty level.

3. Moreover, it's not a safe assumption that there would be two wage-earners in the family, and certainly not two full-time workers. In 2006, our unemployment rate was 3.8% (below the state average of 4.8%), but that was up from 2000. That's not a surprise, given that the county labor force had grown by 10% in that time.

4. From 2004 to 2014, we're supposed to see about a 50% increase in the number of jobs available (which is good news, given that our population is unlikely to grow proportionately). However, most of the jobs created, as you might expect, will be in service fields, and will offer low wages and few benefits.

So overall kind of a mixed bag. And of course, if you're coming here from somewhere out of state, you might get a shock when things here are just about as good as they are elsewhere in North Carolina.