BOONE – The number of High Country business owners expecting to hire new employees in the coming year is double the number expecting layoffs, according to a newly released report from Appalachian State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Economic Research & Policy Analysis.

The eight-county High Country region includes Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey counties.

The report highlights a dramatic shift in the employment situation from a year ago. “During the height of the recession, for every four businesses that reported layoffs, only one business reported hiring employees. This coming year, for every two businesses expecting to hire new employees, only one business is anticipating layoffs,” said Jason Hoyle, an analyst with the university’s Research Institute for the Environment, Energy and Economics.

These employment expectations are reflected in official state economic data, which show that the region created a significant number of new jobs in the first quarter of 2010. Recent numbers however, indicate the momentum in job creation has faded over the summer months.

According to Dr. Todd Cherry, director of the Center for Economic Research & Policy Analysis (CERPA), the report illustrates the resiliency of regional businesses. “Local business leaders are the backbone of the WNC regional economy, and policies and programs need better information to effectively address their opportunities and challenges. This report is a first attempt.”

The report, titled “Expectations in an Uncertain Economy,” is the first in a series covering the state of business in the High Country. It was compiled from a survey conducted by Appalachian’s Center for Entrepreneurship and CERPA.

According to the report, the High Country has averaged 11.9 percent unemployment during the past 12 months, peaking in February at 14.1 percent. The unemployment rate fell to an 18-month low of 10.9 percent in June.

During that period, the labor force shrank by 3.35 percent as the region lost 3,320 jobs and the number of unemployed workers fell by 1,930.

“However dismal the economic situation may appear, labor market dynamics in the High Country region appear to be in an early stage of reversal,” according to the authors of the report.

After losing 6,500 jobs between July 2009 and February, the region gained 2,800 jobs between February and June. The first half of 2010 also saw an accelerated decline in the number of unemployed workers with a drop of more than 21 percent to an unemployment level of 16,426 by June. “This decline in the unemployment number is significant because more than 60 percent  of these workers found employment during the first half of 2010 instead of leaving the labor force as was commonplace in late 2009,” according to the report.

While these data are not conclusive indicators of an imminent economic recovery, they suggest a shift in the dynamics of the region’s labor market – a suggestion of recovery reflected in the expectations of business owners participating in the High Country Business Survey.

Other key results from the survey include:

-       25 percent fewer business owners expect their business to contract in the coming year than experienced a contraction during the recession

-       2.5 times more businesses expect to expand in the coming year than reported expanding during the recession

-       Nearly three-quarters of business owners reported either quality of life or local family roots as the primary reason for being located in a rural area

-       72 percent of business owners surveyed started their own business

“The partnership between CERPA and the Center for Entrepreneurship is exciting. By combining these two university research centers with community leaders, economic developers and business owners, we hope to better understand the needs and opportunities throughout our region and develop more programs that can help spur economic development through entrepreneurialism,” said Bryan Toney, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship in Appalachian’s Walker College of Business.

The full report is available online from the Center for Economic Research & Policy Analysis at http://cerpa.appstate.edu/. For more information about either the report or the High Country Business Survey, contact Toney at 828- 262-6196 or toneybc@appstate.edu.

Appalachian’s Center for Entrepreneurship coordinates more than a dozen co-curricular and outreach programs that directly impact more than 2,500 students and community members throughout the region each year.

On campus programs include the annual Carole Moore McLeod Entrepreneur Summit (Oct. 8), the Young Entrepreneurs Symposium and the Dale Tweedy Mentoring Program for Entrepreneurship Scholars.  Outreach efforts include Start your Own Business workshops (Oct. 26 in Watauga County) and regional research and entrepreneurial development efforts funded by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

One of the center’s new projects is focused on how the region can create more homegrown successes.  During the next 12 months, it will be documenting and publicizing locally founded companies that have become significant contributors to local economies.

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