Burke listed one of NC's most economically distressed counties

The day before Thanksgiving, Burke landed on the bottom half of the state’s annual list of most economically distressed counties. The designation dropped Burke from a Tier 2 to a Tier 1, the category reserved for counties with the weakest economic indicators.

County Manager Brian Epley said the shift looks alarming on paper but cautioned against reading it as a sudden downturn. The tier system, he said, is a statistical snapshot that often nudges counties back and forth from year to year, especially those sitting on the cusp of each tier.

Each year, the N.C. Department of Commerce ranks all 100 counties on a scale of 1 to 3 for economic distress. Tier 1 counties are the most distressed, while Tier 3 counties have the strongest economies.

This year, Burke fell from Tier 2 to Tier 1. Epley said that Burke, and many other counties, teeter on the threshold between tiers every year. Many counties shift tiers annually, he said.

The Department of Commerce is required by state law to designate every county by tier. There must be 40 Tier 1 counties, 40 Tier 2 counties, and 20 Tier 3 counties. Counties are ranked within this framework based on unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and assessed property value per capita, according to the Department of Commerce.

Burke’s shift to a Tier 1 county was not a surprise, Epley said.

“The tiered designation is largely a statistical economic analysis,” Epley said, including Hurricane Helene in late 2024 as a factor in the county’s designation. “We did have a little bit of an increase in unemployment with some companies that didn’t either permanently reopen or were shut down for some time.”

Epley said the county also had issues regarding property taxes that may have played into the Tier 1 designation.

The latest available data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Burke County’s unemployment rate was up to 4.1% in August, compared to July’s rate of 3.8%. Both are higher than the state’s current 3.7% unemployment rate.

Epley said other factors are that other counties experienced economic growth, “and because all 100 counties have to fit inside this lens, there are more fluctuations (with the designations).”

Overall, Epley sees a positive future for Burke’s economy.

“To me, it’s not an implication of our momentum or how we’re performing, because largely, I feel like we are ascending, and I think that economic development is one of our county commissioners’ top priorities,” Epley said.

Epley said the vision and strategies for economic development in Burke County are clearer now than in the past.

“That is partnership with Hickory and the (Hickory Regional) airport, that is partnership with Foothills Regional (Commission), that is the economic development shell building, (and) that is the Drexel site,” Epley said.

The shell building, located in Burke Business Park, will be an empty industrial building. Upon completion, it will be ready for any industry to purchase and move in, quickly kicking off operations without the hassle of having to buy and rezone property. This project is expected to break ground in early 2026.

The site in Drexel is located at the former Drexel Heritage Furniture headquarters and will be a development park similar to the Burke Business Park, Epley said.

In addition to its clearer economic growth strategies, Epley said there are some upsides to being designated as a Tier 1 county, including providing Burke County Public Schools with additional Title I funds, and qualifying the county for additional resources and grants. All of this will give Burke a competitive advantage, he said.

“The short story is it’s (tier designation) not indicative of our trend, or what the future will hold. It tends to change here year to year, but I can see some opportunities and some advantages to being Tier 1, for us.”

All counties that fell from higher tiers were Burke (Tier 2 to Tier 1), Buncombe (3 to 2), Granville (3 to 2), Haywood (3 to 2), Henderson (3 to 2), Jones (2 to 1), Madison (2 to 1), Pasquotank (2 to 1), and Yancey (2 to 1). Among those, Burke, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, and Yancey were notably impacted by Hurricane Helene.