News

New Opportunities for Workers (NOW) Program

Manufacturing jobs once represented the economic mainstays of rural North Carolina communities. Generations of families worked in the same mills, and while not glamorous, the jobs provided good, steady incomes with health insurance and retirement benefits.

Over the past 10 years, more than 210,000 of those jobs have disappeared, the victims of more productive, less labor-intensive technologies and the trend toward off-shore production. Other economic forces have taken a toll as well. On one day alone, 4,800 North Carolinians joined the ranks of the jobless when Pillowtex announced bankruptcy in July 2003.

Large numbers of these workers have been unable to find new jobs. Others have been forced to accept jobs with lower pay and fewer benefits.

The Rural Center believes they deserve more and better options. One possibility lies in self-employment.

Full Site: http://www.ncruralcenter.org/entrepreneurship/now.asp

***********

Many thanks to Eric Pages of EntreWorks Consulting http://www.entreworks.net for passing this along.

Eric writes:
"There is a lot going on in this area—a number of states are responding by
adding entrepreneurship or small business training as an approved use of
retraining funds.

One example is North Carolina’s New Opportunities for
Workers (NOW) effort. This is not a full
solution of course, but it does expand the range of options available to
displaced workers."

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.