Posts Tagged ‘unemployment’
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Brent Lane, director of the UNC Center for Competitive Economies, is a straight-talking, no-nonsense personality and this week he minced no words with Legislators in an appropriations meeting for Natural and Economic Resources. North Carolina, he said, is in the doldrums and dropping further down each day. His statistics were disconcerting.
Wages are down in all areas except arts and entertainment and agriculture when compared to U.S. averages. Financial sector salaries are down by 23 percent and even healthcare personnel in N.C. are earning less. In only three counties in the state are workers earnings matching the U.S. average. Since 2008, our wages have fallen from 92.8 percent of U.S. per capita income to 87 percent. If our trend continues, we will be earning 79 percent of national income average in 2014 which is where we were in 1969.
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Tags: agenda, Asheville, Brent Lane, Burke County, Clampetts, coal, Competitive Economies, debate, Democrat, DNER, Goldstone, healthcare, house, jobs, Joe Hackney, Lee, legislative, Liberal, Marion, Martin Nesbitt, Mitchell Gillespie, Moore, natural gas, north carolina, North Carolina One Fund, opposition, progressive, regulations, Repulican, Sandhills, Speaker, tax, UNC, unemployment, wages
Posted in Legislative, News | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 28th, 2011
The line in the sand has been drawn between Gov. Beverly Perdue and the Republican majority legislators and the battle to develop the 2011 – 2012 budget has begun. The governor wants to use a three-quarters percent sales tax to preserve public education, with some cuts to the university system. A new priority for community colleges would be the “Career High Schools” which would mainline performing students into a two-year community colleges degree program—at no cost to the student. As far as the GOP leadership is concerned, the governor’s budget was dead on arrival. They are working on a spending plan that eliminates the tax and cuts education spending by $700 million. (more…)
Tags: Asheville, battle, Beverly Perdue, Brad Miller, budget, career high schools, Catawba, community college, congressional districts, cuts, David Lewis, degree, Dr. Tom Ross, earnings, education, enrollment, financial aid, Gaston, gop, Governor, graduates, Guilford, hickory, house, I-85, Jim Forrester, job, leadership, legislators, Lenoir-Rhyne University, lincolnton, McDowell, mecklenburg, Mel Watts, million, Mitchell Gillespie, north carolina, Northwest, oath of ofice, override, Pell grant, population, redistricting, Republican, Robert Rucho, rural, sales tax, Senate, spending, Triad, UNC, unemployment, unifour, university, Wake, workers
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Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Marshall Cohen, a nationally-recognized forecaster of trends, was speaking at a gathering of hosiery manufacturers and suppliers this week and made a startling observation: Americans had better get used to it: our economic climate represents the new norm for the United States. Expect permanent unemployment rates of 10 per cent and if you are in the Hickory Metro area, it will be greater. There will be less money and fewer banks.
Jobs will continue to disappear. ATM machines mean banks need fewer tellers. Self-checkout stations in big box stores translate to fewer cashiers. In manufacturing, technology will assure that most jobs lost in the past decade are gone forever. President Obama and Democrats can’t change the course and neither can Republicans despite their “pledge with America.” (more…)
Tags: cabaret, candidates, charlotte, coffee club, democrats, firemen, furniture, hickory, hickory community theater, hosiery, independent, jobs, leadersip, legislator, manufacturers, marshall cohen, mayor, metro, money, north carolina, obama, pledge with america, policemen, politic, president, raleigh, ray warren, republicans, rudy wright, suppliers, tea party, technology, textiles, unemployment, union, workforce
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