Jobless rates are economy's downfall

Unemployment rates in Western North Carolina have more than doubled in the past two years from just under 5 percent to 12.2 percent.

While the region's economy experienced positive growth in the spring, the region lost some of those gains in the third quarter of this year, according to the Western North Carolina Economic Report, which was released last week.

"Employment continues to be a problem," said Todd Cherry, a co-author of the economic report and director of the Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis at Appalachian State University. "The region lost jobs in 22 of the last 24 months. The cumulative effect of this trend is tremendous, particularly for the hardest hit areas."

In Alleghany County, the unemployment rate was 13.59 in September, down slightly from 13.77 in August, but up from 11.94 and 12.84 the prior two months. The unemployment rate one year ago in the region was 8.23 percent. While the improvement in unemployment in the county was slight, Alleghany was the only county in the region that showed improvement at all, giving the county the top spot in that category.

In neighboring Ashe County, unemployment was 11.21 percent, up from 11.15 percent the month prior.