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Lines keep growing at jobs office
Employment official says flood of layoffs makes keeping up with services difficult
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Published: April 2, 2009
Like most Triad employment officials and residents, Anne Bowlin can't put her finger directly on what's causing the dramatic increase in job losses in the Triad.
All she knows is that the unemployment rate in the Triad -- which rose to 11.5 percent in February -- appears accurate because the lines keep getting longer in her offices at the N.C. Employment Security Commission.
Two of the three offices Bowlin manages-- in Alleghany and Ashe counties -- have the highest jobless rates in the region at 15.3 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively. She also manages the office in Wilkes County, which has a 13.2 percent jobless rate.
"We are getting overwhelmed and trying to keep from getting behind in pretty much everything we're doing because of the volume of people needing help," Bowlin said yesterday. "We typically have 75 to 125 job vacancies posted with us. Today, we had 30.
"It's not the major job layoffs that are affecting us, but the layoffs of two to three people to 10 to 15 people at a time. Increasingly, we're not even aware that a layoff has taken place until the laid-off workers begin coming into our office.
"What's really sobering,'' she said, "is that we're getting calls from mom-and-pop businesses who are having to file claims for their employees for the first time in their existence. You can just tell in their voices that letting go of their employees is gut-wrenching to them."
The Triad jobless rate of 11.5 percent represents a 41-year high; the previous high had been set just in January at 10.4 percent. The commission is able to track the Triad's jobless rate only back to 1968, spokesman Larry Parker said.
The region's news follows last week's announcement that North Carolina's jobless rate hit 10.7 percent in February, the highest level in at least 33 years. The state rate had been 9.7 percent in January.
"Virtually every job sector in North Carolina has had some loss because of the national recession," said Moses Carey Jr., the chairman of the Employment Security Commission.
The rate increase was slightly higher for the Winston-Salem metropolitan statistical area, going to 10.4 percent from 9.2 percent in January. For Forsyth County, the jobless rate rose to 10 percent from 8.8 percent in January.
The Winston-Salem MSA -- consisting of Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties --posted a net gain of 300 jobs during February, including 500 additional jobs in educational and health services and 300 in leisure and hospitality. The area continued to bleed manufacturing jobs, losing 700.
Yet Archie Hicks, the manager of the commission's office in Forsyth, said he didn't see "a cause for celebration in any area" of the job market.
The unemployment rates of every county in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina went up in February -- just as they did in January. Ashe County recorded the largest increase, rising 1.8 percentage points to 14.8 percent, and Davidson County rose 1.6 percentage points to 13.4 percent.
"North Carolina's labor market is unraveling, and no community is safe," said John Quinterno, a research associate at the N.C. Budget & Tax Center. "Even communities that are supposed models of the new economy have been buffeted. In the Research Triangle, unemployment reached 8.7 percent in February, and in the greater Charlotte region, 12.4 percent of the labor force was unemployed."
Patricia Hillard, the manager of the commission's Lexington office, said she has seen an increase in companies letting go of employees that they had tried to keep attached through furloughs and temporary layoffs.
She has noticed an uptick in employers firing workers for cause -- which typically keep sthem from drawing unemployment benefits -- along the lines of absenteeism, poor work and misconduct.
There has also been an increase in claims filed by people who left their jobs voluntarily, which also could limit their ability to receive benefits.
"You would think, in this economy, you would try hard to hold on to your job unless the job just became unbearable," Hillard said.
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
Sharp rate increases
Every county in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina experienced another big increase in its jobless rate in February:
County - January rate* - February rate
Alleghany - 14 percent - 15.3 percent
Ashe - 13 percent - 14.8 percent
Davidson - 11.8 percent - 13.4 percent
Davie - 10.3 percent - 11.2 percent
Forsyth - 8.8 percent - 10 percent
Guilford - 9.9 percent - 11 percent
Rockingham - 12.9 percent - 14.2 percent
Stokes - 10.2 percent - 11.5 percent
Surry - 12.2 percent - 13.3 percent
Watauga - 7.7 percent - 8.6 percent
Wilkes - 11.8 percent - 13.3 percent
Yadkin - 10.5 percent - 11.6 percent
* - Some January rates were revised; Source: N.C. Employment Security Commission
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