Rural areas in North Carolina are seeing slower economic growth and development. In some areas, businesses cannot find employees with the skills needed for the jobs; in other areas, qualified workers cannot find jobs. There is no simple answer to solve these issues, Andrew Curliss writes for the News & Observer in Raleigh.
Gov. Pat McCrory's Republican administration has said that "helping rural pockets prosper is a critical part of boosting North Carolina's overall economic health,"so state leaders are changing their strategies for promoting rural economic development. McCrory and Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker say they "want more jobs at higher wages outside the state's metropolitan areas."
"There is no program from the state that is going to solve it," Pat Mitchell, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for rural economic development, told Curliss. "Mitchell was thrust into the new role by a series of events over the past few months that led to changes at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, the state's longtime voice for rural areas," Curliss notes. The legislature took about $100 million from the center, which will now serve a considerably smaller role, prioritizing helping small business and providing training for rural leaders. Mitchell and a board of 16 others will be leading the efforts to help rural areas.
 |
| Gov. Pat McCrory (N&O) |
"There is no program from the state that is going to solve it," Pat Mitchell, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for rural economic development, told Curliss. "Mitchell was thrust into the new role by a series of events over the past few months that led to changes at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, the state's longtime voice for rural areas," Curliss notes. The legislature took about $100 million from the center, which will now serve a considerably smaller role, prioritizing helping small business and providing training for rural leaders. Mitchell and a board of 16 others will be leading the efforts to help rural areas.
Decker often says that helping rural areas is important to her strategy. "We want to create a net job growth. We want a higher average wage. We want more and better jobs were people life," Decker told a North Carolina Farm Bureau gathering this year. "Those outcomes are going to happen by placing a greater emphasis on existing industry, doing more for small business and entrepreneurs, targeting our recruitment on industry sectors—like advanced manufacturing, agribusiness, and others, with a strong emphasis on rural North Carolina."
Mitchell, nevertheless, says it's too soon to say what policies or ideas might be employed to solve these issues. For example, she couldn't say where grants would be made. She also "deflected a question about how she would prevent political influence around the state's future rural grants," Curliss writes. Political connections seemed prevalent in some of the center's decisions.
"There's not a sweeping answer to fixing what ails rural areas," said Dan Broun, a program director at Durham-based MDC, a 50-year-old nonprofit that has focused on helping rural areas. "So there's not going to be a decisive, one-size-fits-all-way to go at this." Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California-Berkleley, said "skilled workers are clustering in metro regions and creating an even greater gap between 'high-knowledge' areas and all others, especially rural."
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm Manager Shane Gebauer has experienced difficulties finding good workers. Unemployment in Wilkes County is at 9.5 percent, but many people cannot read or do basic math, which is required for many of the jobs, Curliss writes. Gebauer told him, "Education is a huge part of this." (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment