This economic downturn has been truly national in scope, with almost no region or industry immune to the downturn.
Massive job losses in such industries as construction have been felt in every community. They have left many people with skills that no longer match the jobs available in industries that are growing.
But the pace of recovery across this state is likely to vary depending on the makeup of the local economy. Recovery is likely to be slowest in parts of North Carolina that are still restructuring, and shifting away from a reliance on legacy industries, such as textiles, that have been shrinking for years. Regions like the Triangle are expected to be among the fastest to recover nationwide.
Here are snapshots of the economic outlooks for four areas of the state.
TRIANGLE
With its highly educated population and diverse economy, the Triangle was among the least affected by the recession, losing about 4 percent of its jobs at the peak of the downturn.
"The only metro area in the state that did better was Fayetteville, due to what's happening at Fort Bragg" and the military expansion, said Michael Walden, an economist at N.C. State University.
The Triangle's attractiveness is driven by Research Triangle Park and the region's three major universities - Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State - which produce a steady supply of labor and high-level research.
A number of local companies have continued to add workers over the past year, including Red Hat, SAS, Cree and Talecris. Others, such as Research in Motion, Garmin and HTC have recently been drawn to the region by its abundance of engineers.
Still, the Triangle's unemployment rate has been stuck around 8 percent since May.
That's below the state rate of 9.7 percent but well above the 5.5 percent rate recorded in the Triangle two years ago.
One of the Triangle's largest employers, state government, has already announced hiring and pay freezes and reductions in purchases and travel. And there's the strong likelihood of significant layoffs within state government next year as legislators seek to close a projected $3.7 billion budget deficit.
Severe cuts to state and local budgets will hit this region's economy harder than others, said John Quinterno of South by North Strategies, a Chapel Hill firm specializing in economic and social policy.
Those cuts will come as many private employers continue to look for ways to control costs until the economy revives. Some of the region's larger businesses, GlaxoSmithKline and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina to name two, have announced major cost-cutting initiatives that could result in smaller work forces.
The housing market, a key component in the region's grown in recent decades, continues to limp along without the help of government tax credits.
CHARLOTTE
The Charlotte region, which has historically weathered recessions well, was hurt badly this time around by declines in financial services and manufacturing.
That helps explain why the region's unemployment rate, 11 percent in October, was a full 3 percentage points higher than the Triangle's.
Financial services and manufacturing each account for about 10 percent of the region's employment base.
"We're losing jobs in manufacturing and construction, and for the most part they're not coming back," said John Connaughton, an economist at UNC Charlotte.
Financial sector losses
In financial services, the total number of jobs lost hasn't been nearly as severe as many people feared when Wells Fargo announced it was acquiring Charlotte-based Wachovia.
Total jobs in the financial sector declined from 77,000 before the recession to about 69,000 today.
"The real kicker is the quality of the jobs we've lost," Connaughton said.
Losing a corporate headquarters has meant fewer high-paying executive and trading jobs. Those high salaries helped drive consumer spending, which in turn boosted employment in the service sector.
The Charlotte region is getting a large percentage of the few jobs that are being created. Of the 15,000 new jobs the state has created over the last year, 6,000 have been in the Charlotte area.
Charlotte is making a concerted effort to turn itself into a hub for energy-related companies. It's also recently been awarded several corporate expansions.
BAE Systems, a British defense and aerospace company, said this month that it would open a center to handle back-office services in Charlotte and create 176 jobs.
Industrial manufacturer SPX Corp. is expanding its Ballantyne headquarters and adding 180 high-paying jobs. The company says its new jobs will pay an average wage of almost $83,000 a year.
As in most other areas of the country, Connaughton said, the problem in Charlotte is that the pace of job creation isn't fast enough to make a dent in the losses that have already occurred.
"It's not raining anymore," he said. "But it's not bright and sunny."
TRIAD
As an area that once relied heavily on tobacco, textiles and furniture manufacturing, the Triad was struggling with job losses even before the country dipped into recession.
The severity of that restructuring is reflected in the region's jobs data.
The number of jobs in the Triad is now about the same as it was in March 2001.
"Come next spring we could actually have fewer payroll employment jobs and fewer private sector jobs than you had 10 years ago, which is extraordinary," Quinterno notes.
Dell plant fizzles
One of the area's biggest economic development projects, a Dell computer assembly plant in Winston-Salem, quickly turned into a bust. The plant closed last month, just five years after it opened.
Quinterno said Winston-Salem has made more strides at repositioning its economy than Greensboro and High Point.
The unemployment rate in October was 10.2 percent in Greensboro and 9.2 percent in Winston-Salem.
Among the recent bright spots for the Triad was Caterpillar's announcement in July that it would build a factory in Winston-Salem next to the shuttered Dell plant that will add nearly 400 jobs.
The company joins several other major corporations, including FedEx and Honda, that have established a presence in the Triad in recent years.
The region has its advantages, Walden said, including a good education system and transportation network.
But he expects the Triad to lag behind the Triangle and Charlotte as it continues to rebuild its economy.
EASTERN N.C.
Parts of Eastern North Carolina, stung by the decline in U.S. manufacturing, were also hurting before the recent economic downturn took hold.
Many areas are dealing with structural unemployment issues, meaning the jobs they've lost aren't coming back and need to be replaced by some new industry.
Nash, Wilson, Edgecombe and Halifax counties all have unemployment rates well above 10 percent.
"When we don't see real strong job growth it's really not going to help those areas much at all," said James W. Kleckley, director of the Bureau of Business Research at East Carolina University. "But there are bright spots."
Major TransPark tenant
One is Spirit AeroSystems, the first large tenant to come to the Global TransPark in Kinston. The company opened a new plant this summer where it will make fuselage components for Airbus airplanes.
Spirit, lured to the TransPark by tens of millions of dollars in state and local incentives, has promised to create 1,000 jobs over the next six years and at least 200 by the end of the year.
Also opening in Kinston in January is a massive new Sanderson Farms chicken processing plant, which is expected to eventually create 1,600 jobs.
Other bright spots include the ongoing expansion of the military in Jacksonville and the recent jobs announcements by Fountain Powerboat Industries in Washington and Hatteras Yachts in New Bern.
The coastal economy depends heavily on tourism and construction, two areas that were hurt badly by the recession.
Kleckley said this summer appeared to have been better for tourism. As for new construction, it remains at record low levels.
"It's going to be a while until you see really active building," he said. "It's still a struggle, and those people that depended on construction jobs are going to have a hard time coming back to the things they like to do."
