According to Riverbird Research, the number of jobs in the region’s beverage manufacturing and brewery industries increased over the five-year span between 2018 and 2023. 

The 49% increase in the number of industry jobs in an 18-county region of WNC was slower than the state’s growth rate of 54%, though the concentration of jobs was 3.8 times the national average. Breweries, specifically, had an estimated 2,380 jobs in 2023, or 87% of total Beverage Manufacturing jobs in the region, and the concentration of brewery-specific jobs was 9.9 times the national average. The total of 2,728 jobs supported by beverage manufacturing and breweries in the region occurred across 113 payrolled business locations, and earned an average annual salary of $44,305.

The highest concentration of these jobs occurred in Buncombe County which supported 1,415 of these jobs, followed by Henderson County which supported 597 of these jobs.