ECONOMIC TRENDS
Two successive documents, the Report to the Henderson County Board of Commissioners by the Committee on Economic Development and the Henderson County Economic Development Master Plan, generally agree that Henderson County’s economy is composed of the four basic components: Industrial / Manufacturing, Tourism, Commercial, and Agriculture, in rank order. (These reports will be addressed in more detail, below).
Underlying these four basic components of the county’s economy are two primary foundations: the natural environment (those ecological and landscape features and functions upon which the economy is built) and the people (from which the economy derives its energy, intelligence, and for whose benefit the economy operates). The following information reviews the components of the county economy in some detail.
The measurement and comparison of various income levels
helps to quantify the economic viability of a community. Per capita income is defined as the average
income for every individual man, woman, and child within a unit. When viewed in comparison with median family
income and median household income, the overall strength of the local economy
can be determined. Figure ET.1 shows the
income per capita, median household income, and median income of
In 1990, the per capita income in
The median household and family incomes were also only slightly less than the state averages. According to the figures detailed in Figure ET.1 above, the median family and median household incomes increased by upwards of 200% during the period between 1980 and 2000.
The number of families with income under $5,000 decreased by 85% between 1970 and 1990 (Figure ET.2), and the number of families with income above $25,000 increased dramatically during the same period.
Over the years
Source: Based on NC Employment Security Data
Labor force is defined by the US Census as including all
persons who are able to work, and who are sixteen years of age or older. This includes employed and unemployed
persons. The NC Department of Commerce
holds that 43.9% of the county’s population was in the labor force in
1999. NC Employment Security Commission
data indicates that
Figures ET.5 & ET.6 indicate that the largest percentage of the county’s workforce (approximately 65%) is found within the manufacturing, service, and retail trade sectors, as has been the case during much of period between 1970 and 2000.
An interesting shift in employment occurred between 1980 and 2000 as manufacturing took second place in employment to service trades. In 1980, the largest employment sector was manufacturing, followed by services and retail trade. Then, during the 1990s and into 2000, the largest sector of employment became services (27.7% of total employment), followed by manufacturing (19.4%) and retail trade (17.4%). In comparison, the State percentages for service trades and manufacturing in 2000 were 27% and 17%, respectively.
The lowest employment in