Carolinas economy: Are they getting it right?

My regular readers already know I have a broad, broad range of political and social interests. Still, I hardly ever explore them at InterstateQ.com. I decided to break the mold this time.

Several papers across the state reported this past week on a new economic report recently released by the Milken Institute, a non-partisan economic and social think-tank based on the Left (*cough*), I mean, the West Coast.

According to my hometown paper, The Winston-Salem Journal, the report “ranks 200 metropolitan areas based on economic growth, including both long-term and short-term measurements of employment and salary growth and indicators of high-tech output.”

For the first time, my lovely birthplace made the top 100, placing at 99. I guess it is an accomplishment — if you consider being in the top 50 percent “accomplished.” (I guess being in the top third of my high school graduating class makes me extra special?)

Other Carolinas cities ranked in the listing, too. Again, from The Journal:

Metro, 2008 rank, 2007 rank, Job growth, Wage growth
Raleigh-Cary, 2nd, 10th, 11th, 57th
Wilmington, 6th, 2nd, 8th, 23rd
Durham, 21st, 74th, 70th, 111th
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, 26th, 23rd, 35th, 49th
Asheville, 46th, 117th, 52nd, 100th
Fayetteville 52nd, 80th, 41st, 11th
Winston-Salem 99th, 128th, 104th, 158th
Greensboro-High Point 141st, 136th, 132nd, 167th
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, 191st, 199th, 193rd, 195th

All these numbers sound great. Really, they do. Any group can take any sort of numbers compilation, manipulate them in just the slightest way and make something not all-that-grand seem like the most appealing thing ever.

I fear that’s what the Milken Institute has done for our little North Carolina cities. Not to (for lack of a better word) bash my beautiful Tar Heel State, but life isn’t looking all that up nowadays.

My main question: How much of this “job growth” is in industry that will actually stay here if companies decide to uproot and move their operations to places like Mexico, India or Bangladesh. As a Journal commenter said, jobs at places like a HondaJet plant or a Dell Computers plant do take more skill, but they’re still low level, assembly line production jobs; if any jobs go, they’ll be among the first (or at least, closely thereafter) to leave.

Perhaps I’ve been watching too much of the hysterical, national news stations. Maybe the jump in gas prices and the realization I’m on an even tighter, tighter budget this month has got me blue. Or maybe, the Milken Institute is right and things are looking up. Who knows.

Posted in North Carolina, United States |