“We’ve seen stability in the job count,” said Brittany Brady, president and CEO of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development. “While we certainly have had some challenges and changes, whether that be technology or unfortunately some closures of facilities, what you see is new job creation coming right back behind that. We’ve had some really innovative projects across the region that have stabilized that head count, but also brought in that high-tech Manufacturing Industry 4.0. There’s some really, really cool things happening in our corner of North Carolina.”

Much of the recent manufacturing growth in this region has been in the realm of advanced manufacturing, a branch of the industry that is in part defined by the technical and specialized skills needed for employees, explains Josh Carpenter, director of economic development at the Mountain West Partnership. 

“Those highly skilled technical jobs require a lot of training, and then that equates to higher wages,” he says. 

Much of that growth has clustered around transportation and aviation manufacturing. Brady points to Western North Carolina’s proximity to South Carolina’s automotive corridor as a major advantage.

“Transportation components are a key sector for us in Western North Carolina,” Brady says. “Our proximity to BMW is going to be key for many of our automotive projects.”

She also highlights aviation manufacturing growth in Buncombe County through companies such as Pratt & Whitney and GE Aerospace.

At the same time, the region continues to cultivate a wide range of manufacturing niches. Brady points to food and beverage production, outdoor recreation products, and emerging energy technologies as examples of industries that fit naturally into Western North Carolina’s culture and geography. Companies like Cane Creek Cycling and Legacy Paddlesports can test their products right here in the mountains. She notes the recently-announced expansion of Firetech by HiViz LED Lighting (read more on page XX) as an example of growth in the professional services sector.

“A lot of the [FireTech expansion] is the professional services side—engineering and sales,” she said. “A lot of that is leaning into people wanting to be in Western North Carolina. People want to live here, which makes it a really good place to expand and grow your business because people want jobs that are located in cool places. They don’t want to wait to retire here, so they’re bringing those jobs and creating opportunities.”

Carpenter says companies understand that offering employees access to the region’s outdoor lifestyle can strengthen recruitment and retention efforts.

“Those employers are competing for employees,” Carpenter says. “They want to be able to offer the quality of life that we have and package it with their job. You can live and work here, make a good living, and live in this place. It’s so beautiful.”

Despite the industry’s momentum, workforce development remains one of manufacturing’s greatest challenges. Both Brady and Carpenter describe a labor market that continues to adjust after the disruptions of the pandemic.

“Workforce is a challenge across the globe,” Brady says. “After the pandemic in 2020, people’s perceptions of work just changed, and how they work changed. The entire globe is battling with re-entry to work and what that looks like.”

Still, Brady says the region has made progress through partnerships with community colleges and apprenticeship programs (read about A-B Tech’s new initiative, ABM Works, on page XX). 

“We have great opportunities with our community college systems, with our school systems, with apprenticeship programs to really have a cradle-to-career program,” Brady says. “I think we’ve gotten really gritty with some of the opportunities that we have for the workforce to get people engaged. Employers are really creative when it comes to getting people through their door and retaining them.”

Carpenter says apprenticeships and transferable technical skills are becoming increasingly important for workers seeking stable careers.

“What people are interested in doing is finding a skill they can hold on to and be able to transfer amongst employers,” Carpenter says. “Manufacturing really is one of the main types of industries that do that.”

He says manufacturing jobs continue to provide the kind of economic stability communities depend on.

“Manufacturing really helps your community members become better skilled,” Carpenter says. “They get technical skills and knowledge, and they’re able to then sort of build on that value add within themselves.”

Reshoring manufacturing and increasing domestic production, while generally perceived as a net positive, come with challenges. Carpenter says rebuilding industrial capacity also requires rebuilding the workforce skills that disappeared when many industries left the United States decades ago.

“Bringing that manufacturing back to US soil makes a lot of sense,” Carpenter says. “We create jobs here. But where I think we’ve got a lot of work to do is bringing those skills back. We let some of those skill sets go somewhere else.”

Brady says Western North Carolina manufacturers must balance domestic growth with the realities of a global economy.

“We love the idea of bringing as much manufacturing and job creation back to Western North Carolina as possible,” Brady says. “But there’s still products that we have to source from overseas, and so it’s really creating that balance.”

Looking ahead, Carpenter believes the future of manufacturing in the mountains will depend on thoughtful, strategic growth that matches the realities of the region’s geography and available land.

“We need to use that land to its highest and best use,” Carpenter says. “We don’t have these huge swaths of available property just to do anything and everything we want with them. But on the other hand, we want economic growth. We want to be able to grow jobs. We want to be able to grow investment.”

For Brady, the region’s manufacturing future ultimately comes back to the same thing that has sustained it for generations: the people.

“The heart behind manufacturing in Western North Carolina are really the people,” Brady says. “We’ve got some hardworking people. We have some innovative and creative people. While the type of manufacturing may change…the spirit of the people and the workforce remain strong.”