According to Riverbird Research, the number of jobs in the region’s education industry decreased during the five-year span between 2019 and 2024. 

Despite the 4% decrease in the number of industry jobs in an 18-county region of WNC, the number is 7% higher than the national average. There was no increase or decrease in this sector’s jobs on average for the whole state. The total of 30,441 jobs were supported by 741 payrolled business locations and earned an average annual salary of $64,580, excluding supplements. 

The highest concentration of reported jobs occurred in Buncombe County, which supported 9,467 education jobs, followed by Watauga County which supported 4,509 of these jobs.