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I'm hoping to find out what the job situation is like in these areas.
My parents own a place in Old Fort that they visit several times a year, but is currently unoccupied. I've stayed there a few times, and it's a very pretty area, but also kind of isolated.
I'm about to graduate from college with an art degree here in Tampa and hoping to move up to Old Fort for a while to just get away and work on my art - so I'm wondering how jobs look around there? Several people have been saying that unemployment is rising in the area, so I'm a little worried about finding anything.
I've been working as a caricature artist in a theme park, so I don't think I can transfer that very well to any places in the area.
I'm not looking for a career job or anything - but I'm wondering how much part time, small jobs pay - and how easy they are to get. I just need something to pay bills but not take up a lot of my time.
Where would be best to look? Also, what areas would be easy to commute to? I've heard someone say something about Old Fort mountain being difficult to drive on in the winter.
I don't know the number exactly, but the unemployment rate in the area is pretty darn high at the moment.
Here's a link to the newspaper from Marion http://www.mcdowellnews.com/ No idea if there are any jobs posted in the Classifieds or not. I live in Morganton, about half an hour or so from Marion. Most of our classifieds pages is the paper itself posting ads that say "Your Ad Could Be Here!". Unemployment in Burke country (which is right next to McDowell County) is 9+ last I read.
Also remember that just because the unemployment rate is low doesn't mean that there are jobs available, or that there isn't a large population competing for these jobs. I just looked in the Boone (Watauga County) paper, and almost all of the jobs listed are service ($8/hr) industries. The Mexicans are here working the tree farms, but there is one live-in position for general farm labor. There are three church positions open (PT Admin assist, financial sec., and youth minister), a couple of receptionist and only 1 or 2 "professional" positions. I've never seen so few ads in the paper. There are no driver or construction jobs at all. I've never seen that either, even up here. The recept and ofc positions are PT and will probably be snatched up by college students.
On a good note, at least Caldwell county has some new positions opening up! MDI Distributors is adding jobs as is a furniture company.
The job market in the Black Mountain area is probably not much different than Boone, and could possibly be worse. Looking for several small jobs might be a better bet. House cleaning is going for at least $20/hr. I'm not sure about commercial rates since I haven't cleaned commercially in several years.
Don't give up on the characatures though. There are lots of coffee bars and such that would probably let you set up on Friday and Saturday evenings!
I didn't think about doing small gigs in coffee shops and such; that might help out a little. The unemployment rate is about 7% down here, so we're not too far behind you guys. I'm paying rent on my apartment while only making about minimum wage because I work on commission and business is really bad. If I move up there, I won't have to pay rent, so just about anything would be better.
I guess all I can do is try it out. We're visiting for Christmas, so I'll try to check it out while I'm there. I just wanted to know what locals knew about how bad it looks.
Marion just got hit with 3 large plant closures/cutbacks in the past few months so it's going to be grim there. Those folks will be seeking other opportunities in Marion and Old Fort so I'd say that your prospects in that area for relatively unskilled labor (no offense meant) won't be promising. It might be a little different further east in Black Mountain/Asheville but don't forget that this is now the off-season in the mountains in places other than the ski areas. Maybe if you can go a little further north up to Boone, Beech Mountain, etc. you might be able to pick up some seasonal work.
Hi JLPark,
I sent you a direct message, you can get to it on this page, by going to the top right, in your welcome box, it has a direct message link. It's tips on Blk Mt and a few other things. It was kinda long, so I chose not to post it here. But I think it's a great idea to stay in Old Fort and perhaps work in Blk Mt in the warmer months when tourism builds up.
GG
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