In Henderson County, job openings outpace job seekers, driving up average income

In Henderson County, job openings are outpacing job seekers, leading to significant jumps in wages; however, these wage hikes are still not keeping up with the cost of living.

With over 3,000 job openings in Henderson County and only around 2,000 people who are unemployed, the labor market is tight, according to President and CEO of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development Brittany Brady.

Average wages in the area jumped by about $3,000 a year, Brady said, up from the $1,000 increase in average yearly wage of years past. Still, the average yearly wage of $43,698, as reported by the NC Department of Labor, is not enough to support one adult and one child at the living income standard of $50,530, according to the NC Budget & Tax Center, a non-partisan organization that works to document economic conditions in communities.

"It is probably 'the best of times, the worst of times' for both workers and employers. For workers, labor markets are historically tight, employers are receiving rather substantial wage increases and are receiving more flexibility on how they do their work. Also, employers are expanding their hiring pools to include many workers previously left behind," said Nathan Ramsey, Executive Director of the Land of Sky Regional Council and Director of the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board.

"For employers, their business demand is still relatively strong and many are hiring, unfortunately they are struggling to recruit and retain workers. There is a 'war for talent' among all employers, and often they are unable to provide wage increases that match inflation."

Related: Henderson economic analysis: High marks in education, employment; but affordability issues

Other local reporting: Asheville labor force reaches pre-COVID numbers, openings still outnumber job seekers

According to Ramsey, the region now has a record number of people in the labor force, a record number of jobs and a record number of people working. The economy is also "growing and booming," Brady said, despite the fatigue many are feeling from the high number of unfilled positions.

"I think across the board, whether you are in healthcare or manufacturing or retail or hospitality, it has been that there is a real fatigue the last few years and burnout the last few years. And so certainly that creates challenges," she said. "Our office and our community as a whole is doing a lot to address this."

Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville is one of many healthcare providers dealing with staffing shortages; however, according to Vice President of Workforce Development and Community Affairs John Bryant, part of what is driving job openings for the hospital is the expansion of services it is currently undertaking.

"I think if you talk to any hospital administrator or healthcare system right now, you would recognize that we are all faced with the workforce challenges," he said. "Whether it be workforce shortages or the trends with regard to replacing staff, especially coming out of the last couple of years, we are really proud here that one of the things we are doing is seeing greater stability in that while we're still dealing with the vacancy challenges."

Pardee Hospital partners with Blue Ridge Community College's nursing program to help recruit new hires, Bryant said, and although a key targeted area for recruitment is in nursing, jobs are opening across the organization, both in patient facing and non-clinical support roles. Another way the hopsital draws in new hires is by offering competitive wages and benefits.

"We have no position that pays less than $15 an hour, and that may not seem like a huge deal, but it is, I think, a critically important step when we talk about living wage adjustments," Bryant said. "So right now, the competitive nature of our clinical staff, the competitive nature of our non-clinical staff, and really making sure that we have market leading benefit opportunities are priorities for us."

Every employer, Bryant said, would likely say it is harder to find employees now than before the pandemic, but that "each and every one of us are trying to make sure that we are providing great employment opportunities" to drive recruitment through existing employees who are happy at their jobs.

To assist with the labor shortage, Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development is also helping to build pipelines to employment in programs such as the the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Pathways Initiative, whose goal is help disconnected youth get back into education or the work force, and at the Blue Ridge Community College. In addition, the partnership has a workforce development task force which is beginning a new campaign.

Wages and Cost of Living

With an average yearly wage of $43,698 in Henderson County, many are still unable to afford necessities, even with the over $3,000 increase from last year.

"Unfortunately for workers their living expenses are going up, in many cases, beyond their wage increases. For workers who need childcare, the availability is less than the pandemic," Ramsey said.

The NC Budget & Tax Center reports that the living income standard, or the amount that needs to be made per year in order to live a modest live with no savings or emergency expenses, is $50,530 for one adult and one child or $68,470 for two adults and two children, meaning many in the county fall below this threshold. The center also reports that, between 2016 and 2020, 46% of renters paid spent than 30% of their income on rent and 19% spent more than 50% on rent.

Employment in Various Industries

Job openings and unemployment are not distributed equally throughout different industries. According to a quarter one 2022 report on Henderson County by JobsEQ, Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations had the highest rate of unemployment at 6.4% and has the lowest average yearly wage at $25,800, followed by Personal Care and Service Occupations at 6.0% unemployment and a $30,300 average wage.

Jason Reasoner, executive chef and partner at Postero on Main Street in Hendersonville, said in an email in July that staffing was an issue at his restaurant, and even though the last two and a half years "have been bananas," the industry was losing people for years before the pandemic.

"When staffing becomes too thin, we scale back our operations so that we don't kill the employees that we have and we are able to maintain the quality and integrity of what we do," he said in the email. "We've made some changes recently to kitchen pay rates. We have instituted a Kitchen Appreciation Fee that benefits all kitchen employees."

According to the same report, the profession with the highest average wage, Management Operations at $96,600 a year, had a much lower unemployment rate of 1.9%, and the profession with the second highest average wage, Legal Occupations at $84,300, had an even smaller unemployment rate at 1.6%.

"What we are seeing right now, kind of the 'office type jobs' have the lowest unemployment rate, so there seems to be some stability there," Brady said. "Anecdotally, we believe that workplace flexibility is driving a lot of that right now."

Even companies that have employees right now are not safe from staffing issues in the future, she said, and that employers are seeing less stability in the market as a whole right now.

"For example, you might have a company who is staffed up perfectly, and then two months ago the widgets that they use to make their widgets had a supply chain disruption. And so now that they don't have that widget, they can't do what they need to do, and so they are having to shift employment around," Brady said. "So it's really hard to pinpoint, if we could figure out this thing, it would fix all the problems, because we are dealing with supply chain, inflation and fuel."

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Job openings outpace job seekers, driving up average income