Economy
of the North Carolina: According to the Bureau
of Economic Analysis, the state's 2004 total gross state product
was $336 billion. Its 2005 per capita personal income was
$31,029, 36th in the nation. North Carolina's agricultural
outputs include poultry and eggs, tobacco, hogs, milk, nursery
stock, cattle, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. However, North
Carolina is the state most affected by offshoring and industrial
growth in countries like China; one in five North Carolina
manufacturing jobs has been lost to overseas competition.
There has been a distinct difference in the economic growth
of North Carolina's urban areas and its rural, small-town
areas. While large cities such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Cary,
and others have experienced rapid population and economic
growth over the last thirty years, many of the state's small
towns have suffered from job and population loss. Most of
North Carolina's small towns historically developed around
textile and furniture factories; as these factories have closed
and moved to low-wage markets in Asia and Latin America the
small towns that depended upon them have suffered.
