The global recession has accelerated North Carolina’s shift from manufacturing to technology industries, putting a large segment of the state’s workforce at risk, according to a report released Wednesday.

The North Carolina Commission on Workforce Development said the state needs to focus on getting workers retrained for more high-tech positions and ensuring that the state’s education system can produce graduates qualified to take on 21st century manufacturing positions.

(Read the full report here.)

“In order for North Carolina to compete on a national and global level, we must continue to invest in educating and training our workforce for the jobs of today and tomorrow. We simply can’t go backwards on this commitment,” Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco said in a statement.

Companies that thrived on low-skilled labor have shifted most operations overseas to take advantage of lower wages and have reconfigured operations in North Carolina to be more technology-oriented, according to the report.

Workers without the skills to adapt to the new jobs will find low-skill, low-paying jobs harder to find in the future, and the rural areas where many of these jobs were located will decline economically, the report says.

Metro areas that provide an array of technology positions will continue to be a magnet for skilled workers from both inside and outside of North Carolina, the report says. The number of residents born elsewhere will pass North Carolina natives living in the state within three years, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections.

Workers will need to continue their education beyond high school or obtain industry-recognized credentials to survive in a technology-based economy, the report says, which will put pressure on North Carolina’s education system.

Key findings

The top 10 findings in the report, according to the authors:

1. Worker dislocation accelerated during the recession due to long-term structural changes in business processes to increase efficiency and technology.

2. Workers employed in low-skill, middle-wage jobs are competing for fewer good-paying jobs while opportunities offering similar wages (i.e., new middle jobs) demand higher skills.

3. While metropolitan workers have a more diverse set of career opportunities, they must continuously adapt to increasing demands in the workplace and a more competitive labor market.

4. Dislocated or young workers in economically hard-hit micropolitan and rural areas have very limited alternatives for employment.

5. Seeking good-paying jobs, more workers must increase their skills by accessing and completing education beyond high school or by earning industry-recognized credentials.

6. The recession slowed baby-boomer retirements, but the impact is likely to be felt first and greatest in micropolitan and rural areas where more workers are near retirement age.

7. High-skill in-migrants recruited to help companies meet their talent requirements are seeking jobs in metropolitan areas.

8. Migration of new workers continued at near pre-recession levels, even among low-skill workers, despite the limited availability of jobs.

9. Lower skill workers accounted for most of the unemployed and required significantly greater social services during the recession.

10. Workers employed in certain industries – e.g., manufacturing, finance, distribution, or construction – were more likely to lose their jobs and to need retraining to find work.

Web Editor: Matthew Burns

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