College towns offer increased job stability

For 2007 UNC graduate Meg Petersen, staying in Chapel Hill post-graduation was an obvious career decision.

“Chapel Hill has so much to offer. … There are so many opportunities here,” Petersen said.

And why go anywhere else? Orange County has the second lowest unemployment rate in the state at 6 percent for May — not seasonally adjusted — according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Services, while the state’s overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, at 10.3 percent, is above the national average.

College towns across the nation have some of the lowest unemployment rates.

Monongalia County, home of West Virginia University, holds the lowest rate in West Virginia at 5.3 percent for May.

“The economy in college towns is consistent. You know the biggest source of revenue is always going to be there, and housing prices are always stable,” said Chris Cronin, a graduate student and teaching assistant in UNC’s economics department.

“When someone loses their job, they feel like they can’t look for a job in another county because they can’t sell their house (for a profit). In Chapel Hill, that’s not true.”

Therefore, there are fewer unemployed people sitting in Chapel Hill, he said.

Kathy Bryant, of the UNC Office of Human Resources, said only about 47 percent of full-time University employees live within Orange County, although many live right outside the border.

On Monday, Chapel Hill was voted 40th best small city in CNN’s Best Places to Live. Among the reasons the city is so highly ranked: “Educated conversation is easy to find: nearly half of adult residents have a graduate degree.”

Chapel Hill’s proximity to Duke University, N.C. State University and the Research Triangle Park, not to mention its own university, likely plays into its high proportion of graduate degrees.

The University continues to provide employment opportunities in an otherwise unsteady economy.

According to the University’s Department of Human Resources, there are currently 103 open faculty positions and 53 open staff positions, as of Monday.

Chapel Hill has growing job opportunities, many of them the result of University-inspired research, said Dwight Bassett, town economic development officer.

“We need to continue to work so that people will not only be able to be educated here, but through their education find employment,” Bassett said.

“Chapel Hill being a college town has in part made it the great city it is — we need to build on that tradition” Bassett said.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.