Asheville’s employment picture combines a 61.8% civilian labor-force participation rate in the city during 2020-2024 with a 4.5% annual average unemployment rate across the metropolitan area in 2025. The local job mix is broad: food preparation and serving was the largest reported occupational group in May 2024, while management, legal, healthcare, and technical jobs recorded substantially higher mean hourly wages.
Contents
- City workforce context
- Metro unemployment trend
- Largest service and operating occupations
- Professional, technical, and public-facing work
- Higher-wage occupational groups
- Service, trade, and operating wages
City workforce context
The U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts profile describes Asheville city residents and workers over the 2020-2024 period. It reports that 61.8% of people age 16 and over were in the civilian labor force. The corresponding figure for females age 16 and over was 56.3%. These are city-level workforce participation measures, not metro-area employment rates or a single-month snapshot. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Asheville city, North Carolina
The same 2020-2024 profile reports a mean travel time to work of 18.2 minutes for workers age 16 and over. For community planning, that figure provides a city-level measure of typical commuting time, but it does not describe the distance traveled, transportation mode, or the experience of every worker.
Educational attainment is another part of Asheville’s labor context. Among city residents age 25 and over, 53.4% held a bachelor’s degree or higher during 2020-2024. The measure applies to residents, rather than only people currently employed. It helps describe the potential educational profile of the local workforce without establishing an occupation, wage, or field of study for each person.
The Census profile also reports a median household income of $71,102 in 2024 dollars during 2020-2024. This is a household measure and should not be read as an individual wage or as the mean pay for Asheville jobs. Taken together, the participation, commuting, education, and income figures give community leaders several distinct lenses on employment conditions.
Metro unemployment trend
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports annual average unemployment rates for the Asheville metropolitan area, a geography that is broader than Asheville city. The series moved from 4.3% in 2021 to 3.1% in 2022 and 2.9% in 2023. It then rose to 4.1% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025. These are annual averages, so they summarize each full year rather than identifying the rate in a particular month.
| Year | Asheville metro annual average unemployment rate |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 4.3% |
| 2022 | 3.1% |
| 2023 | 2.9% |
| 2024 | 4.1% |
| 2025 | 4.5% |
The lowest reported annual average in this series was 2.9% in 2023. The rate was 1.2 percentage points higher in 2024 and another 0.4 percentage points higher in 2025. Those comparisons describe the published rates; they do not identify the causes of the changes or predict what will happen next.
Because the unemployment series covers the metro area while the QuickFacts measures cover Asheville city, the two sources should be kept separate. A city participation rate and a metro unemployment rate answer different questions and use different geographic scopes. Unemployment Rates for Metropolitan Areas, Annual Averages
Largest service and operating occupations
The Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment and wage release for May 2024 shows a labor market with especially large service, sales, administrative, and operational groups. Food preparation and serving occupations accounted for 12.2% of Asheville metro employment, the largest share among the listed groups. Office and administrative support represented 11.2%, while sales and related occupations represented 9.9%.
Transportation and material moving occupations accounted for 8.5% of metro employment, followed by production at 6.6%. Construction and extraction and installation, maintenance, and repair each represented 4.0%. Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance accounted for 3.4%, and personal care and service accounted for 2.5%.
Protective service occupations represented 1.9% of Asheville metro employment in May 2024. Farming, fishing, and forestry was the smallest listed group at 0.2%. These percentages describe occupational employment shares in the metro area, not the share of city residents working in each field and not job-growth forecasts.
The concentration of employment across these groups matters for community leadership because it shows how many different kinds of work contribute to the regional economy. Large groups such as food preparation and serving, office support, sales, transportation, and production can have different scheduling, training, retention, and advancement needs. The data identify their employment shares; they do not measure job quality or vacancies.
Professional, technical, and public-facing work
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations accounted for 7.9% of Asheville metro employment in May 2024. Management occupations represented 5.5%, while business and financial operations and educational instruction and library occupations each represented 5.1%. Healthcare support occupations accounted for 4.5%.
Several smaller occupational groups round out the metro’s professional and public-facing profile. Community and social service occupations represented 1.8% of employment, and computer and mathematical occupations represented 1.7%. Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations and architecture and engineering occupations each accounted for 1.4%. Life, physical, and social science occupations accounted for 0.7%, while legal occupations accounted for 0.6%.
| Occupational group | Share of Asheville metro employment, May 2024 |
|---|---|
| Healthcare practitioners and technical | 7.9% |
| Management | 5.5% |
| Business and financial operations | 5.1% |
| Educational instruction and library | 5.1% |
| Healthcare support | 4.5% |
| Community and social service | 1.8% |
| Computer and mathematical | 1.7% |
| Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 1.4% |
| Architecture and engineering | 1.4% |
| Life, physical, and social science | 0.7% |
| Legal | 0.6% |
The mix includes both high-share occupations and specialized groups with smaller employment shares. A small share does not mean an occupation is unimportant; it indicates only how the May 2024 employment distribution was reported. Occupational Employment and Wages in Asheville, NC — May 2024
Higher-wage occupational groups
The May 2024 BLS release reports a mean hourly wage of $27.60 across all Asheville metro occupations. Among the listed occupational groups, legal occupations had a mean hourly wage of $56.01, and management occupations had a mean of $54.59. Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations averaged $52.30 per hour.
Computer and mathematical occupations had a mean hourly wage of $48.74. Architecture and engineering occupations averaged $42.22, while life, physical, and social science occupations averaged $40.38. Business and financial operations occupations had a mean of $38.62 per hour. Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations averaged $32.35.
Community and social service occupations had a mean hourly wage of $27.61, nearly matching the all-occupation mean of $27.60. Educational instruction and library occupations averaged $23.47. These are mean hourly wages for occupational groups in the metro area in May 2024; they are not individual salaries, medians, or guaranteed starting wages.
| Occupational group | Mean hourly wage, May 2024 |
|---|---|
| Legal | $56.01 |
| Management | $54.59 |
| Healthcare practitioners and technical | $52.30 |
| Computer and mathematical | $48.74 |
| Architecture and engineering | $42.22 |
| Life, physical, and social science | $40.38 |
| Business and financial operations | $38.62 |
| Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | $32.35 |
| Community and social service | $27.61 |
| Educational instruction and library | $23.47 |
| All occupations | $27.60 |
Service, trade, and operating wages
The same May 2024 release reports mean hourly wages of $25.17 for construction and extraction occupations and $26.80 for installation, maintenance, and repair. Production occupations averaged $22.84, while sales and related occupations averaged $22.71. Office and administrative support occupations had a mean hourly wage of $21.72.
Transportation and material moving occupations averaged $20.26 per hour. Healthcare support occupations averaged $19.25, and farming, fishing, and forestry occupations averaged $18.57. Personal care and service occupations averaged $18.08, while building and grounds cleaning and maintenance averaged $17.26. Food preparation and serving occupations had a mean hourly wage of $16.06, the lowest listed figure in this set.
Protective service occupations recorded a mean hourly wage of $23.95. The spread across these groups shows why a single metro-wide mean does not describe every worker’s pay. Occupational averages can be used to compare broad groups, but the figures do not provide worker-level earnings, benefits, hours, experience, or the distribution of pay within an occupation.
For local decision-making, the employment-share and wage measures are best read together. Food preparation and serving accounted for 12.2% of metro employment and had a $16.06 mean hourly wage. Management represented 5.5% and had a $54.59 mean. Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations represented 7.9% and had a $52.30 mean, while healthcare support represented 4.5% and had a $19.25 mean. These contrasts describe the May 2024 occupational structure and pay levels without implying that one measure determines the other.
The source periods also matter. City workforce participation, commuting, educational attainment, and household income are reported for 2020-2024, with household income expressed in 2024 dollars. Metro unemployment figures are annual averages for 2021 through 2025. Occupational employment shares and mean hourly wages are measured in May 2024. Keeping those dates and geographies visible is essential when using Asheville employment statistics to understand community conditions.