Rowan County has hit its highest unemployment rate in 19 years, state figures released Tuesday show.
The percentage of working people out of jobs in the month of May reached 11.4 percent, the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported. That translates to an estimated 8,440 people.
Rowan had the second-highest jobless rate among the state’s 100 counties in May, topped only by rural Vance County in the northeastern part of the state.
Rowan County’s jobless rate has puzzled those who follow the economy because — perhaps more than any other county in North Carolina — it has changed so drastically from month to month. The figure is an estimate based on the number of residents who file for unemployment benefits each month and an estimate of those who don’t file.
Unemployment here fell from 8.3 percent in March to 4.4 percent in April — a figure that didn’t include the more recent announcement that Pillowtex would cut 590 textile jobs in Kannapolis.
The last time Rowan’s unemployment was as high was in July 1982, when it hit 17.3 percent.
May’s 11.4 percent puzzled local employment experts.
“Those numbers are bouncing all around, and I wouldn’t want to speculate what’s causing that,” said Gary Shoesmith, an economist for Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.
“It’s really hard to say why this is,” said Randy Harrell, executive director of the Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission. “This rate changes every month and depends on when the filings take place.”
Karen Leonard, director of the state employment office in Salisbury, said the unemployment rate includes people who are unemployed temporarily but still have permanent jobs. That includes hundreds of Rowan County residents who work for Freightliner, Pillowtex and other companies that sometimes close for a week because of slow sales.
That skews the unemployment rate upward, Leonard said.
“We’re really not seeing anything different than what we’ve seen in the past months,” she said. “Companies are trying to deal with the economy because orders are slow and still keep their employees.”
Pat Hillard, a counselor at the employment office, said this month’s rate was the highest she’s seen in her many years at the office. An estimated 1,965 people lost jobs in Rowan County last year, and hundreds more have faced cuts so far this year. Hillard wonders what businesses will replace the jobs lost.
“I’m not seeing a lot of new jobs being created here,” she said. “There’s always been the mindset here that you can always get a job in manufacturing. But that’s no longer true.”
Hillard said when she drives around Rowan County she sees a lot more homes, boats and automobiles with “for sale” signs on them.
“It hurts,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of hurting people in the county right now.”
That’s all the more reason not to raise property taxes this year — even if folks in the school system say they’re out of space and having to cut positions and money for new classroom supplies, County Manager Tim Russell said.
“We’re definitely going through a transition with textiles, and it’s going to be painful,” he said. “But I think we’re at the bottom of a cycle and we’ll come out of it and learn from it.”
With so many manufacturing jobs disappearing, the county economic development office is reconsidering the type of businesses and industry it is looking for, Harrell said.
“We’re in the process of re-evaluating how we’re going to go on with our marketing efforts,” he said this morning. “With the elimination and decline of traditional manufacturing, we have to reconsider.”
Rene Archie priced stock in a warehouse for retailer Dillard’s until April, when she lost her job. A former certified nursing assistant who recently divorced and let her certification expire, Archie is thinking about re-entering the medical field.
“I’m optimistic,” she said. “It’s hard trying to find a job, with nobody hiring and places closing permanently.
“Things can’t get worse. They can only get better.”
Raul “Arbe” Arbelaez, a post commander for the American Legion, was one of 1,300 to lose his job at Cleveland’s Freightliner plant last October — on the day of his second wedding anniversary.
In the eight months since then, he’s been an electrician for Beacon. He lost that job last Thursday, one of 25 there he said lost jobs because of cutbacks.
At the employment office Tuesday, he said he’s had two job offers and remains hopeful.
“I have to be. There’s no time to sulk and worry about it,” he explained. “It just boils down to what you have to do. I don’t take it personally.”
An ex-Marine who moved to Salisbury from New Jersey 11 years ago, Arbelaez isn’t about to leave for work elsewhere.
“I literally set roots here. It boils down to, ‘This is my home.’”
Contact Brad A. Hodges at 704-797-4266 or bhodges@salisburypost.com
.
Today's News
