Almost one year has passed since Hurricane Helene, one of the worst disasters North Carolina has ever faced, impacted Western North Carolina. As the anniversary approaches, we wanted to check in on the recovery of different aspects of the regional economy.
In this first of a series of reports, we analyze labor force and unemployment data to determine the labor force impacts of Helene as compared to Florence. We find that after the initial impacts, much of the region has recovered, but that some areas are still working on coming back from this generational storm.