When Jobs Go Away for Good

From Stateline, A Pew Center on the States Project:

by Christine Vestal

“A company called Pillowtex closed its plant in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Pillowtex was the town’s biggest employer by far, and most of the 4,800 workers who lost their jobs had little education and dim prospects for finding new jobs in manufacturing.” 

“Mike Easley, who was then the governor of North Carolina, responded by invoking a federal program targeted at workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition. Although the Trade Adjustment Assistance program had been around since the 1970s, states weren’t taking advantage of it much at the time.”

“Easley managed to get millions of dollars in grants to help the Pillowtex workers and more than 12,000 others who also lost manufacturing jobs in the state. The money went for basic education, including high school equivalency degrees, and to re-train workers for jobs in other fields such as health care and construction that were in demand in the local communities and nearby cities. The program also came with generous health insurance subsidies and unemployment checks for more than two years — much longer than unemployment insurance normally lasts — while the workers pursued training and job searches.”

“Recently, the trade adjustment program has factored into the Obama administration’s response to the nation’s stubbornly high unemployment rate. The federal economic stimulus law has temporarily expanded eligibility for the job re-training assistance beyond the field of manufacturing, and also improved the financial benefits associated with a program that was already considered the Cadillac of unemployment insurance. ‘The idea is to fundamentally change our approach to unemployment in this country,’ President Obama said in May while announcing his employment initiatives. ‘It’s no longer just a time to look for a new job, but is also a time to prepare yourself for a better job.’ “

Read the rest of the article at Stateline.