Over the past decade, jobs-centered development has emerged as a promising alternative to the South’s traditional strategies of economic and workforce development. Following the Second World War, southern leaders waged an aggressive campaign to transform the regional economy. To this end, officials mixed public policies with private market forces to create jobs and [Continue Reading...]
A Tale of Two Economic Cycles Since 2000, North Carolina has not created enough jobs to keep pace with the growth of the workforce. As a result, proportionally fewer prime-age adults (ages 20-64) are employed now than in 1990. The 2008 recession has exacerbated these difficulties. The NC Budget & Tax Center report [Continue Reading...]
North Carolina lost a net of 79,800 jobs to China from 2001 to 2007. In absolute terms, North Carolina lost more jobs, on net, than all but seven states. Every non-farm economic sector shed jobs with the greatest drops occurring in manufacturing and professional/ scientific/ technical services. [Continue Reading...]
Funding to cover projected enrollment growth within the University of North Carolina (UNC) has emerged as a point of contention in the state budget negotiations. But what exactly is enrollment growth, and how is it measured? To a surprising degree, the answers to those questions hinge on the technical assumptions embedded in the Student Credit Hour (SCH) Funding Model used by UNC to forecast enrollment changes. [Continue Reading...]
Thousands of North Carolina families don’t earn enough to meet a basic family budget, thanks in large part to the growing number of low-quality jobs. However, changes to state policies can help these families build more financially secure futures. Making Ends Meet on Low Wages: The 2008 North Carolina Living Income [Continue Reading...]
By John Quinterno By replacing a portion of the wages lost by individuals who become unemployed involuntarily, North Carolina’s unemployment insurance (UI) system helps working families and communities weather economic downturns. Financial pressures that converged during the recession that began this decade, however, have strained the UI system’s ability to meet current economic realities. Pending [Continue Reading...]
By John Quinterno Manufacturing and agricultural firms in North Carolina pay lower tax rates than other businesses on energy purchased for use in production. Nevertheless, several recent legislative proposals have called for eliminating the energy taxes paid by manufacturing and agricultural enterprises. While an economic argument can be made for repealing those taxes, doing so [Continue Reading...]
