Regional Matters
These posts examine local, regional and national data that matter to the Fifth District economy and our communities.
Telehealth offers a potential opportunity to support health care access in rural communities, but the digital divide in access to broadband and devices shows that these underserved communities face lower access to health care.
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.
Although the communities surrounding universities experienced some shielding effects from previous recessions, the unemployment rate actually increased in these areas following the COVID-19 recession.
South Carolina's recruitment of a Boeing assembly plant to North Charleston in the late 2000s boosted the state's aerospace sector and Charleston's local labor market over the subsequent decade.
The pace of hiring has recently slowed in Virginia, but month-over-month growth in the state continues to outpace the national rate, reversing much of the trend of slower growth seen in the post-COVID-19 expansion.
Customer spending in the Fifth District has been on a decline according to results from the Richmond Fed's business surveys. This pullback was especially true among lower-income individuals.
The Fed's Small Business Credit Survey monitors small business credit access across the United States. Available data for Virginia, Washington, D.C., and North Carolina show broad similarities to national trends — and a few differences.
Data from Fed Communities' Banking Deserts Dashboard show how in-person banking access changed in the Fifth District from 2019 to 2023.
Rural areas were hit hard with labor shortages during COVID-19, more so than their urban counterparts. However, the tides have turned with rural wage growth now exceeding that of urban areas.