Public Policy
Overview
Over the past decade, the North Carolina furniture industry has faced the difficulty of balancing increased offshoring with the challenge of promoting domestic manufacturing. Increased taxes and the desire to decrease costs have led to a rise in offshoring and the furniture industry is working to promote domestic companies and workers. With the help of the AHFA (American Home Furnishings Alliance), the nation's largest trade organization for home furnishings firms, the furniture industry is trying to help create policies that will protect domestic manufacturing and ensure continued international competitiveness.1
With China's entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the furniture industry in the U.S. continues to monitor China's manufacturing industries, in the hopes of increasing tariffs and quotas on imported goods to promote domestic capital. The U.S. industry feels that increasing American made furniture and improving access to foreign markets are essential in protecting American competitiveness in furniture. Worker retraining has also become an important aspect of policy within the furniture industry. With most of the industry involved in the manufacturing sector, companies have become obligated to offer training and retraining for employees in order to ensure the highest level of productivity.
Education and Skills: The Key to Staying Competitive in the Job Market
The state and federal government have allocated funding for unemployment benefits and retraining programs in North Carolina, specifically to assist displaced textile and furniture workers. The National Emergency Grant, which was worth $1.45 million, was given to Southern Piedmont region of North Carolina in 2002 and an additional $2.6 million was allocated to Western North Carolina in April 2003. The grants were part of the secretary's discretionary fund, and were awarded after the request of the state or local workforce investment board was approved. The purpose of the grants was to assist a total of approximately 2,666 workers by supplementing existing re-employment programs, such as job search assistance, job development, basic skill training and career counseling.2
In North Carolina, the workforce development system is known as the JobLink Career Center System (JobLink) and is an important support program for the unemployed. JobLink offers three levels of services: core services, intensive services and training services, depending on the specific needs of the unemployed worker. In brief, the core services provide basic assessment of skill levels and abilities, and assistance in job search and placement. The intensive services offer more comprehensive skills and abilities assessment, counseling services and development of useful skills. The training services provide a wide range of programs, which include, but are not limited to, on-the-job training, skills upgrading, literacy training and entrepreneurial training.
The North Carolina Community College System is another important resource for unemployed workers to pursue higher education and upgrade their skills. The fact that traditional manufacturing industries have not been creating many new jobs, makes it necessary for workers to acquire new skills that are useful in other industries. In particular, many students at the community colleges receive information technology-related training. The community college system received high ratings from employers who completed the New and Expanding Industry Training program. In 2002-2003, over 90% of the companies rated the programs as either "excellent" or "very good" in all three categories: meeting the company's expectations, overall impact of the program on the company's operations, and the effectiveness of preparing the company's employees for productivity.3
Besides the state and federal governments, companies also provide support to their laid-off workers. For example, Thomasville offers outplacement services for workers, and strongly supports and endorses the retraining programs offered by the government. Thomasville believes that it is important to continue to maintain a working relationship with its laid-off workers, and stay in contact with laid-off workers, because it believes that these workers are already trained and the company will try to rehire them when the opportunity is available.4
References
- American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA), "About AHFA," Website. Last accessed August 9, 2007. [http://www.ahfa.us/about/about.asp]
- Elissa Pruet, "Labor Grant Will Aid Dislocated North Carolina Workers Chao Announces Over $1.45 Million National Emergency Grant To Supplement Re-employment Programs," Washington, DC: Department of Labor, April 2, 2002. [http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/opa/OPA2002193.htm]
- North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), The North Carolina Community College System Annual Report, 2003, Raleigh, NC: NCCCS, 2003
- Interview with Tom Tilley, November 19, 2004. (Full text in Corporations section)
