The jobs are there, but the money isn't

N.C. voters see their income stretched tighter and tighter

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama don't go long at campaign stops before uttering an applause-inducing, four-letter word: jobs. Each has detailed plans to create millions of them.

But in historical context, the labor market isn't that bad -- particularly in North Carolina. Nationally, the jobless rate is 5.1 percent. Here, it's 5.2 percent.

Back in 1982, the national rate rose as high as 10.8 percent. As recently as January 2002, the North Carolina rate was 7 percent.

Yes, the U.S. lost almost a quarter million jobs -- 232,000 -- in the first three months of the year. In 2001, though, it shed 325,000 in October alone.

There's no doubt the economy has slowed and recession might already have taken hold. But talk with voters in the Triangle and you'll find them most interested in the quality of jobs.

People are struggling to make ends meet. At least 219,000 in the state work multiple jobs just to keep up.

For six months last year, Kim Hoover worked two. Then she tried to make it with just one.

"I couldn't afford to eat all the time," said Hoover, who earned just over $20,000 last year. So now she puts in 50 hours a week at Harmony Farms Natural Food Store in Raleigh and as a bartender at downtown's Berkeley Cafe. "You have to have money to survive, and there are too many people who aren't making it," said Hoover, 23, of Raleigh. "Something needs to happen."

'Worst I've ever seen'

That's the message on the campaign trail, too, where candidates have focused on oil, trade and other pocketbook concerns to appeal to middle-class voters.

"For the wealthiest of Americans, higher gas prices may just be a nuisance," Clinton said at an appearance in Graham on Monday. "But for a lot of hard-working Americans, it is becoming a crisis."

Bert Morrison of Capital Sales on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh has not seen an influx of customers hurting from job cuts. But he has seen people seeking quick cash to buy groceries or buy fuel to get to work.

"It's the worst I've ever seen it," said Morrison, who manages the decade-old store that buys used goods from people and resells them at a profit. "Their paychecks are spent. Now gas is $40, $50" to fill up.

"It's just a killer," he added.

Statewide, the average price of regular, unleaded gasoline rose 10 percent in the past month to $3.59 per gallon. The price is up 23 percent in the past year, according to data from AAA.

In the South, a gallon of milk costs 18 percent more than a year ago. Eggs are 46 percent more per dozen. And potatoes cost 5 percent more per pound.

Wages have not kept pace with those kinds of increases. On average, private-sector wages in North Carolina increased 3 percent between September 2006 and September 2007, the most recent data available from the N.C. Employment Security Commission. The pace has likely slowed since then.

"This goes with the territory of a recession," said Mike Walden, an economist at N.C. State University. "We tend to see wages and incomes not rise as much and in some ways trail the overall cost of living."

North Carolina leaders in recent years have worked to improve the types of jobs in the state and insulate the state from broader economic swings. Time was, manufacturing was the gateway to the state's middle class. In the past 10 years, 260,000 of those jobs have disappeared, largely due to international competition.

Today, state officials talk about jobs in healthcare and "green" industries as the path to a higher standard of living. North Carolina has set up a statewide work force training network for biotechnology jobs and last year created the Biofuels Center to exploit demand for alternative energy.

The presidential candidates' proposals share similar strategies to not only create jobs but add higher-paying ones. Clinton, for instance, has proposed raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour. Obama wants to invest $150 billion in alternative energy over a decade, which he says would create 5 million jobs.

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has not outlined job strategies.

Still looking

Morrison wonders whether the ideas matter. Customers say, " 'It's going to get better when somebody else is in,' " he said. "How is it going to get better? How do they have the magic ball?"

For her part, Hoover is undecided on a candidate. She hasn't had time to make up her mind.

Some days, she's at Harmony Farms by 11:30 a.m. and there until 7:30 p.m. She then heads to the Berkeley for an 8:30 p.m. shift that might go until 3 a.m.

"It gets very hectic for me," Hoover said. "I'm just getting burned out."

Recently, she put in her two-week notice at Harmony Farms. More shifts opened up at the Berkeley and, with tips, she can earn as much as she did with two jobs.

But with utilities, food and most other bills going up, she expects to continue a familiar pastime.

"I'm still going to be looking for another part-time job," she said.