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White-Collar Losses
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Published: November 23, 2008
In New York, a laid-off businessman has been walking the streets wearing a Depression-era sandwich board that says he's "almost homeless" as he hunts for work. We're not seeing that level of desperation in Winston-Salem yet, but the city has lost hundreds of white-collar jobs in the past few months, including the 155 at Hanesbrands Inc. last week. City leaders should ramp up efforts to prepare for more cuts.
Any job losses are tough. Unfortunately, we've seen far too many blue-collar job losses in the last several years. Increasingly, the job losses are hitting the white-collar ranks. For years now, North Carolina has been trying to help unemployed factory workers through retraining and other programs. The state and its cities may not be as prepared to help unemployed white-collar workers.
But the ranks are growing in Winston-Salem. Besides the Hanesbrands layoffs, Reynolds American and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. announced 570 job cuts in September. Local white-collar workers will take the brunt of those cuts. The mortgage insurer Triad Guaranty Inc. said in June that it's cutting 100 jobs, most of which are in Winston-Salem. And as Wells Fargo Co. prepares to buy Wachovia, we're holding our breath on the fate of 2,900 Wachovia jobs in Forsyth County.
All this, of course, is part of an increasingly cruel economic picture. You can almost hear the belt-tightening. The city of Winston-Salem is cutting costs wherever it can. So is the city/county school system, which is required to return more than $2 million to the state to help cover a projected budget shortfall.
In all this mess, the problems of laid-off white-collar employees can't be overlooked any more than the problems of laid-off factory workers.
Many of the managers and executives who've lost their jobs or will lose their jobs in Winston-Salem have given their money and their time to numerous causes to improve the city, from participating in United Way campaigns to tutoring in schools. Their financial donations will be missed. So will their time, much of which will now likely be taken up with job hunting. That hunt will lead some of these workers to leave Winston-Salem.
We need as many programs as we can get to help those workers find new jobs that will keep them here. Obviously, city leaders need to improve their efforts to lure new businesses. But even with the best efforts, too many laid-off employees will leave the city. Preparations must be made to fill the gaps they'll leave, both in fundraising and volunteer hours.
We're a long way from the bleakness of the Great Depression, at least in Winston-Salem. But leaders must be proactive about facing an economic downturn that's a long way from getting better.
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