Last Friday Gov. Pat McCrory frantically zipped around the state celebrating his proclamation of “Manufacturing Day” in North Carolina. The governor and N.C. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker seemed giddy in announcing that as many as 700 jobs would be coming to North Carolina by 2018. “Today, we are letting the world know that North Carolina has the skilled workforce to produce quality products at a competitive price. North Carolina has always valued people and companies that make things. Manufacturing is part of our culture and crucial to the future of our economy.”
It was a lot of motion but there are some real questions about how much progress – if any — it represents. The reality, according to N.C. Department of Commerce statistics, is that job recruitment in North Carolina is nearly as slow now as it was during the same period in 2009 – in the depths of the Great Recession. Job recruitment is significantly below the levels of 2012 – when McCrory was campaigning for office.
How far below? Compare the job recruiting numbers reported in this weeks “SYNC” N.C. Department of Commerce weekly newsletter, with the same period in 2012. New jobs announced is down 30 percent; capital investment is down 62 percent. These numbers don’t merely have significance as matters of pride or for political fist bumping. They are having a real impact on broader economic growth, commerce and tax revenues.
Not only aren’t the number of wage earners growing, the amount of money being paid to them is stagnant. That has an impact on commerce across the board. The number of additional people buying things – from groceries to cars and movie tickets – isn’t growing. Nor is their individual income growing since salaries for most wage earners hasn’t increased the last four to six years – and to the degree it has, that amount has been gobbled up as employers pass on greater costs for benefits like health insurance to workers.
So, in a week when the governor’s high-stakes new Economic Development Partnership office officially opened in its slick Cary office park location, it has a clear challenge – to climb out of the economic development hole that has been dug for it these past two years. John Lassiter, who heads the partnership board, and Richard Lindenmuth, partnership CEO, have a big challenge. At least one expert, Jonathan Morgan, associate professor at UNC’s School of Government, says a lot remains to be seen. “It’s not entirely clear that a public-private partnership will actually create more jobs or attract more companies than just having a state Economic Development department or a state Commerce Department,” Morgan said in a recent news report.
Watts Yes, the GA (within support from a lot of conservative, gullible and misguided NC citizens) has been driven by arch-right dogma since 2010. I’m afraid it will continue to move the state toward a most dismal socio-economic future. The GOP has ignored the history lessons of how investing in public education at all levels, in R&D-related support and infrastructure, and in economic planning brings big rewards down the line.
NC’s hard-earned progressive patina is badly tarnished at this moment, and, unless there are big surprises in store at the polls next month, I see no reversal in the foul wind for at least two more years. By that time, the progressive North Carolina of 1990-2009, that so-called lead state of the “New South,” will be but a memory. Getting the state back to what it was–and what it needs to be– will take at least a decade of steady progressive thinking and advancement.
Watts I for one do not see this NCGA majority following your recipe on teacher salaries, Medicaid expansion, community college funding, tolerating same-gender marriage, or willingness to listen to anything but trickle-downers on economy and education. They will use their so-called “biggest salary increase in history” to ignore further increases; will continue their opposition to ACA by refusing Medicaid expansion; will continue limiting funding for higher ed, and have never shown the slightest interest in entertaining non-Cato and non-Heritage-blessed progressive ideas on economic development and education funding.
Trickle-down doesn’t work, so I’ll be waiting for the next governor and at least heavy reductions in the GOP’s NCGA majorities before I anticipate any real action on creating more jobs in NC.
Mick , if the GA does NOT follow your and my suggestions , which are similar , North Carolina will completely lose our historic-for fifty-years “Progressive” reputation and will gradually drop from among the nation’s leading growth economies to down among the weakest . Our pendulum needs to start it’s inevitable swing in the moderate and sensible , non-doctrinare-rightist , direction before it’s too late for a reasonable recovery . The nation’s professional economic developers are asking , ” What’s going on in N.C. , once the leading economic development engine in the S.E. ?” Watts
All North Carolinians had best hope that our new Economic Development approach is highly successful , our future depends upon it . Assume this public-private structure does have significant advantages over the old DOC model . The General Assembly then still needs to provide competitive incentives ($500 million for auto plant) , competitive teachers’ salaries (up from the basement ) , competitive Medicaid coverage ( by not refusing expansion) , reasonable tax rates , greater investments in community/technical colleges , a more business-friendly view toward same-gender unions , and a willingness to listen to the advice of professionals in the fields of economics , economic development , and education/worker training . AND , Economic Development needs to be this Governor’s , and the next’s , JOB ONE ! Watts
I wonder, as Pat dashed around the state proclaiming himself a governing and business genius, if he looked out the aircraft window and thought he saw Russia.
A dog and pony show. All talk and no substance. Let me ask, just where are all those jobs Pat McCrory and the lunatics in the legislature promised as a result of their supply-side economic policies. It’s a fair question that I have yet to see an answer to.
Yes, agreed, and it also remains to be seen whether (1) the McCroryDecker/NCGOP public-private economic development partnership can avoid the many pitfalls that such entities have fallen into in other states, and (2) whether it can operate within the ethical standards that public agencies must. See:
http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/scandalsnotjobs_prrel.pdf