It’s a peculiar time in Rowan County’s economic picture, a time in which some people are desperate for jobs and some jobs are begging for people. The record layoffs over the past two years have put several thousand people out of work.
At the same time, Ann Hovey says, “You still see help wanted signs all over the place.”
Hovey, an economist, is associate vice president for administrative services at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. She was responsible for the presentation of a study the college made on the future of the work force in Rowan and Cabarrus counties in partnership with the chambers of commerce of the two counties.
When Hovey presented the workforce study about a year ago, unemployment in the county stood at 2.5 percent, lower than the 4 percent officials consider “full employment.”
One problem the study identified was a forthcoming need for more technically skilled workers in the future.
The need still exists, Hovey says, and represents the best hope for people who have lost jobs in manufacturing. But they will have to learn new skills to get the new jobs.
Freightliner workers will fare better than some mill workers, Hovey says, because Freightliner requires a high school degree for employment, while mill workers sometimes went directly to their jobs without finishing high school.
On the leading edge
Hovey has found a way to put a positive spin on the employment situation in Rowan County.
“One of the advantages to being on the leading edge of a downturn,” she says, “is that you will be on the leading edge of an upswing.”
She says the current economic situation in Rowan is a restructuring of the economy that could be good for the county.
“It can be painful while going through the process,” she says. “Nevertheless, it has an ultimate beneficial effect on the county for a brighter economic future and a more sustained optimistic outlook.”
Rowan County got an early taste of the consequences of a changing economy,beginning when Cone Mills announced its closing in January 1999, putting 625 people out of work.
Between then and October 2000, eight other plants in Rowan and one in Iredell closed, displacing nearly 2,000 more people. And while Fuchs, Oakwood, Grinnell/Hersey, Freightliner and Auto Truck Transport didn’t close during that period, they laid off a total of more than 1,700 more people. (Fuchs announced last week that it would soon close, laying off its last 34 workers.)
Jobs kept pace
For a while other employers kept pace, providing workers with new jobs.
The Employment Security Commission helped 1,521 people get new jobs between August 1999 and February 2000, although the jobs were seldom as good as the lost jobs in which workers had built up the higher wages and benefits that come with seniority.
Unemployment figures soared from 3.6 percent in July 2000 to 9.5 percent in October 2000. Officials in the Raleigh Unemployment Statistics Unit of the commission explained that the figures were not as bad as they sounded because monthly unemployment rates are calculated by counting the people who either filed a new claim or signed up for a week of unemployment during the survey week. Short-term layoffs affected the totals even when people filing claims already had new jobs.
The rate settled down to 6.1 percent for February.
On the slow side
But Karen Leonard, manager of the N.C. Unemployment Security Commission office in Salisbury, says, “We’re still seeing things on the slow side, not just here, but across the state.”
Most recently, Freightliner and Pillowtex have idled their plants periodically. By mid-March, Freightliner had been shut down for almost as much time as it operated.
Company spokeswoman Debi Nicholson said higher fuel prices forced many small trucking operations out of business and their repossessed trucks flooded the market so that banks got tougher about loaning money for new truck purchases. This means new trucks are not selling as fast as they were.
And Fuchs Systems, which was already operating with a reduced staff making electric arc furnaces that process steel, cut its workforce of 72 people to just 34 in February citing “poor business conditions in the North American steel industry.”
Bob DeCusati, vice president of finance and administration, said a flood of lower-priced imported steel forced some of Fuchs’ customers into bankruptcy, which in turn cut the demand for Fuchs’ furnaces to process steel. Now the Fuchs plant is closing.
New employers
Two new employers have come to the county — the Aldi distribution center and Meridian, but they are hiring relatively small numbers of people.
Tony Sloop, assistant manager in the Salisbury Office of the N.C. Unemployment Commission, says the trend is toward more smaller operations employing modest numbers of people, rather than giants such as Freightliner hiring thousands.
As manufacturing jobs have left the area, Leonard says, the demands for jobs requiring other technical skills and jobs in the service industries are still on the rise.
Hovey identifies the kinds of jobs needing workers, including plastic and metal fabrication, information systems, community-based health care outside the hospital, municipal and industrial water and waste treatment, the hospitality industry and a broad range of services for the elderly.
All such jobs require on-going training and re-education, Hovey says.
Workforce Investment Act
One program designed to help unemployed people fit into new jobs is the Workforce Investment Act, which will pay one half a worker’s wages during a training period to offset the employer’s high training costs.
Karen Leonard says the program is simple and doesn’t require a lot of paperwork on the part of the training employer because her office will handle it. The Salisbury office of the Employment Security Commission is actively promoting the program.
Those who quality fall into one of three categories:
- Veterans recently separated from military service whose military skills offer limited opportunities for civilian employment;
- Underemployed people who lack marketable skills and have a family income below accepted poverty guidelines;
- Homeless people and those receiving public assistance such as food stamps.
Interested employers and potential candidates for the program should contact the Employment Security Commission (704) 639-7529.
Goodwill Industries
At Goodwill Industries, another program in human resource development helps unemployed people gear up for new kinds of jobs with free classes for people who don’t have the skills to get a job or the money for training.
The program also provides basic computer training.
For more information contact Larry Yon, 704-637-0760, extension 238.
Bank workers next?
It’s not just displaced workers in manufacturing who are going to need retraining, though.
Dr. John Connaughton, a professor and analyst in economics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, says that in a downturn, banking takes the next blow after manufacturing. Bank officials say the recently announced merger of First Union and Wachovia banks will eliminate about 7,000 jobs over the next three years, about half of them through attrition.
It is not clear yet where the jobs will be cut, but some of them probably will in in Rowan County.
“We’re all going to have to learn to be more flexible and be willing to change with the economy,” Ann Hovey says. “It’s ongoing, not just a one-time thing.”
Labor market in transition
Dr. Tony Plath, associate professor in the Department of Finance and Business Law, says Rowan County is a labor market in transition that will pick up new industries and sources of jobs.
“Municipal leaders will find ways to identify what you’re good at and try to bring appropriate industry. They’ll bring in some you haven’t seen before,” Plath says.Hovey agrees.
“I believe very strongly that the solution in Rowan County goes back to a groundswell of support potential for recruiting high-end industries,” she says.
“I am really encouraged by the approach of the Rowan County Commissioners and the economic development people here. They are developing a long-range view of the county and its economic prospects that I think is going to be real beneficial.”
She also sees job potential as development comes up from Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties and down from Greensboro and High Point. She says the highway system here will attract business in much the same way the railroads did in the 1800s.
“Companies are being drawn more and more to North Carolina and this area,” she says. “We’ve got to have the support of leaders across the board to recruit. The key is the potential of trained labor for them.”
Some workers say it’s hard to learn entirely new skills after having worked in a familiar job for a long time, but Hovey says it can be done. “Anybody can learn if they have the right teacher.”
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