Regional Economic Analysis of Mecklenburg County, NC

Located in the state of North Carolina, Mecklenburg county is among the ten fastest growing counties in the Unites States (Carmen et al., 2010). As of 2010 census data the population of the county is 919,628, with an estimated population of 1,034,070 in 2015. The city of Charlotte, that covers the most area of Mecklenburg county, is the largest city in NC with close to 700,000 residents, and the seventeenth largest city in the US. Mecklenburg county is part of the NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) of Charlotte, Concord, Gastonia. 546 square miles (1,410 km2) of Mecklenburg county is land and 22 square miles (57 km2) is water (US Census Bureau). Adjacent counties include: Iredell county, Cabarrus county, Union county, Gaston county, Catawba county, Lincoln county, Lancaster county (SC), and York county (SC). Charlotte is home of a large banking industry and several Fortune 500 companies (Carmen et al., 2010). The banking industry makes Charlotte the second largest financial center in the US after New York and has one of the highest median wages in the region (Kozar, 2010). Another large industry in Charlotte is finance, insurance, and real estate, and the headquarters of several national corporations located in Charlotte (Bacot, 2008). Five Fortune 500 Companies that have their headquarters in Mecklenburg County are: Bank of America, Nucor, Sonic Automotive, Duke Energy, and Family Dollar (Dollar Tree) (Fortune, 2016). Education is another large economic sector in North Carolina due to having the largest public school system and a regional state university in this area (Bacot, 2008); these schools include: UNC Charlotte, Davidson College, Queens University, Johnson & Wales University, Wake Forest University (School of Business) Charlotte Center, Johnson C. Smith University, Southern Evangelical Seminary, Central Piedmont Community College, and Belmont Abbey College. Other large employers in Mecklenburg county are Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, Wells Fargo Bank (A Corp), Bank of America, and US Air Inc (NC Department of Commerce, 2015, 4th quarter). Charlotte-Douglas International Airport is the main airport in the region that is the 5th busiest airport in the nation in 2015, and the 6th busiest in the world (Portillo, 2016). This airport is the hub for US Airways and American Airlines that have been merged in 2013, to become the second busiest hub for the combined carrier (Portillo, 2015). Charlotte, like other parts of the US, has been affected by the economic recession that started in 2007. Many job losses and unemployment expanded in all sectors of the economy. The banking industry that was the largest industry in the region was specifically affected by the recession, leaving the region with high unemployment (NC Department of Commerce, 2015, 4th quarter). However, one of the strongest assets of Charlotte economy is its diversity of employment, that even at the time of distress, would sustain its economy (Kozar, 2010).