Economic Perspective: How Did North Carolina’s Economy Do In 2019?

MARY WALDEN:

“Today’s program asks, ‘How North Carolina’s economy did in 2019?’. Mike, although we don’t have the final numbers for the year it’s still useful to look at the available data for clues as to the state’s economic performance. What do the numbers show?”

MIKE WALDEN:

“Well most importantly it was a growth year. For the tenth year in a row, the state’s economy expanded. In terms of production of goods and services, we look to be expanding slightly less than at the national level. But in terms of job growth we are far ahead of the national pace. We are adding jobs at about a two percent pace compared to 1.4 percent at the national level. This translates into 90,000 net new jobs created in North Carolina over the last year.”

“Now one downside was that the building sector seemed to retreat. If you look at permits for new construction in North Carolina, if you look at the year through September, which is the last month we had data for, we actually saw those building permits fall compared to the same period in 2018. Some of that may be due to Hurricane Florence. We’ll have to wait and see, but overall I think we can say with confidence it looks as if North Carolina is continuing to move ahead. The question, of course, is going to be will that continue in 2020.”