Our Team

The relationship between health and employment is bidirectional and intensified by structural and geographic factors unique to rural communities.

Since Hurricane Helene made landfall in September 2024, Riverbird Research of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce found through its surveys that while recovery gained momentum, businesses face ongoing challenges.

Many rural areas lack sufficient resources to strengthen the STEM pipeline. How is one nonprofit in South Carolina addressing the workforce gap in hopes of reducing rural flight?

The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath led to increased job switching, but the recent cooling of the labor market could slow mobility.

Foreign-born workers have made outsized contributions to the Fifth District's labor force growth, but the concentration of these workers varies across industry and geography.

Many Fifth District communities rely on government transfer payments for a sizable share of personal income, but the amount varies, particularly between rural and urban areas.

This post highlights the short-term and potential long-term impacts of Hurricane Helene on Western North Carolina's housing market while also exploring how pre-existing market conditions may interact with the storm's impact.

Since Hurricane Helene's devastation last month, we have kept a pulse on the Fifth District's economic impact and how the communities are doing in the storm's aftermath.

Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic damage to Fifth District communities, presenting challenges to the long recovery ahead.