NC S732

Appropriates $200,000 recurring annually from the General Fund to the Department of Commerce for the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium to conduct bi-annual analyses of economic progress in North Carolina

Requires the Department to report findings to the General Assembly by January 31 of every odd-numbered year, using publicly available data and interviews with people of various socio-economic backgrounds

Mandates measurement of hardship indicators at state and county levels, including poverty rate, child poverty, deep poverty, inequality, and supplemental poverty rate

Requires tracking of job quality metrics including share of jobs paying below living wage, household spending on food/housing/health care/childcare, and cost burden percentages for essential expenses

Requires identification of persistent poverty and concentrated poverty census tracts and the number of people living in those neighborhoods; effective July 1, 2025