South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Fast Track Training in Charlotte

With part of its federal recovery money, North Carolina has endeavored to create short-term training and career transition opportunities for dislocated workers. A recent story in The Charlotte Observer highlighted one such project taking place at Central Piedmont Community College.

The fast track program, created last fall with $500,000 in federal stimulus dollars, will offer training to 450 students in more than 10 vocations, including pharmacy technician, commercial carpentry and electronic engine repair. Much of that money comes through North Carolina’s “12 in 6” worker-training initiative, launched by Gov. Bev Perdue last spring to help N.C. community colleges offer certification classes to displaced workers and other job seekers.
…
In the Charlotte region, where the unemployment rate is now 12.1 percent, the fast track program is part of CPCC’s emphasis on training workers for emerging industries – or those hiring at the moment. Stimulus money also is paying for a $73,000 CPCC work-study program, in which 16 students can earn credit toward certification by working part-time in their field of study.

Economic Hardship in Greensboro, NC

A recent article in The Greensboro News & Record explored the increases in economic hardship that are resulting from the recession.  Reports the newspaper:

From 2000  to 2008 , [the number of poor families in Greensboro recorded] a jump of 3.5 percent , well above the increases in Charlotte  and Raleigh  and tied with Greenville, S.C. , for fourth-highest in the nation.
…
“It’s a pretty sad story,” said Keith Debbage , a professor of geography at UNCG . “We were frankly turning the corner, then got hit flat  on our back by the national recession.”
…
What’s more, a recent study by the Brookings Institution  projects the area’s poverty rate will rise from 14.1 percent to 17.4 percent  when the 2009  numbers are released.
…
That will mean an additional 23,000  people in Guilford , Randolph  and Rockingham  counties are  living in poverty.

Around the Dial – Feb. 9

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• The New York Times looks at North Carolina’s early colleges.
• The Charlotte Observer shows recovery dollars at work.
• Elizabeth Warren offers the case for financial reform.
• Paul Krugman puts the Euro crisis in perspective.
• Robert Reich asks about “Obamanomics one year out.”
• The Associated Press analyzes interstate migration.

National Skills Coalition

John Quinterno of South by North Strategies, Ltd. recently was named to the National Leadership Council of the National Skills Coalition. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization is a “coalition of coalitions” that advocates for public investments in the skills of the American workforce. The Leadership Council serves to develop and articulate the common skills agenda around which the coalition and its members organize and advocate.

Quinterno is one of two North Carolinians serving on the council in 2010. He is joined by Anne Bacon of the NC Rural Economic Development Center.

Muddling Through?

At Project Syndicate, Joseph Stiglitz asks how the American economy can “muddle out of freefall.” Writes Stiglitz:

Deficit hawks – especially among the bankers who laid low during the government bailout of their institutions, but who have now come back with a vengeance – use worries about the growing deficit to justify cutbacks in spending.
…
Trying to “square the circle” between the need to stimulate the economy and please the deficit hawks, Obama has proposed deficit reductions that, while alienating liberal democrats, were too small to please the hawks. Other gestures to help struggling middle-class Americans may show where his heart is, but are too small to make a meaningful difference.
…
Three things can make a difference: a second stimulus, stemming the tide of housing foreclosures by addressing the roughly 25% of mortgages that are worth more than the value the house, and reshaping our financial system to rein in the banks.