It’s a question of when – not if – the national economic slowdown will affect the job market in the Triad, the High Point Enterprise reported today.
“I expect we are going to feel it here,” Don Jud, professor emeritus of business administration at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, told the newspaper. “The pattern is that the Triad economy tracks the nation pretty closely. For example, building permits nationally are down 24 percent. Here, we are down 25 percent.”
Two major Triad employers with ties to Surry County already announced job cutbacks this month. Asheboro-based Klaussner Home Furnishings will close furniture Plant 5 in two months, laying off 130 workers, and Hanesbrands Inc. intends to close textile plants in Davie and Randolph counties, eliminating 120 jobs. Klaussner in September selected Salem Logistics, which has a 350,000-square-foot distribution hub in Pilot Mountain, as its exclusive contractor for transportation and logistics. Hanesbrands manufactures women’s hosiery at its Mount Airy plant, 645 W. Pine.
The slump in the national economy will catch up to the Triad “if there’s a general downturn in consumer spending,” said Mike McCully, economics instructor at High Point University. One risk factor for the Triad is that many key employers, such as Dell Inc. and furnishings companies, depend on big-ticket purchases by consumers, he told the High Point Enterprise. “If the economy is not doing well, that’s often the stuff that people will cut back on,” McCully said.
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