ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The number of furniture manufacturing jobs in

western North Carolina has dropped by nearly two-thirds in this decade as cheap foreign imports flood the market.

The number of furniture manufacturing jobs in the western part of the state fell from about 7,400 in 2000 to under 2,500 in the third quarter in 2013, according to state figures. Those numbers are worse than the state as a whole, where the number of workers have fallen by about one-third since the beginning of the decade.

While experts believe furniture manufacturers will be able to retain some jobs for handmade and custom items, observers also say the jobs that have left won’t be coming back.

Ray Denny, the lead industrial recruiter for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, said that he hasn’t had a single inquiry from the furniture manufacturing sector during his two-and-a-half years in his new job.

Manufacturers that move to cheaper labor overseas are just responding to what consumers are looking for, said Joe Tyson, owner of Tyson’s Furniture in Black Mountain.

“The biggest trend I’ve seen for the past decade is that consumers are looking for value,” Tyson said. “That’s more important than the brand name or the country of origin.”