Protecting & Connecting Workers: It’s the best way for North Carolina to rebuild and move forward
Read the 2021 State of Working North Carolina report
Among the highlights of the report:
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- Creating access to affordable child care:
- Lack of child care presents the primary barrier to employment for around 70,000 Black, 45,00 Hispanic, and 125,000 white North Carolinians.
- In North Carolina, women are 10 times more likely than men to name caring for a child who was not in school or child care as the main reason they aren’t working.
- Around 100,000 people with incomes below $35,000 want to work but cannot because they have lacked child care in recent months.
- Ensuring affordable transportation:
- An estimated 50,000 North Carolinians experience a lack of transportation as the primary barrier to their ability to work.
- The price of a used vehicle has increased by over 40 percent compared with 2020.
- Roughly 105,000 white households lacked access to a vehicle in 2017, a figure almost identical to the number of Black households facing the same problem.
- Protecting workers on the job:
- More than 100,000 North Carolinians would be willing to enter the labor force if they felt secure from contracting or passing on COVID-19.
- Universal access to paid sick leave could have averted thousands of COVID-19 cases in North Carolina per week during some periods of the pandemic.
- Connecting workers to the digital world:
- Lack of access to broadband internet and home computers perpetuates racial economic inequalities.
- Roughly 45 percent of North Carolina households with incomes below $20,000 do not have a broadband internet subscription at home.
- Lack of broadband access is not just a rural problem. Nearly 830,000 residents of rural counties and 730,000 residents of urban and suburban counties lack access to broadband internet.
- Connecting workers to new careers:
- Around 165,000 North Carolinians retired in recent months, increasing the need to train younger workers for the jobs they are leaving behind.
- The occupations with the greatest labor shortage require extensive training and specialized skills.
- The mismatch between workers’ existing skills and the needs of employers is greatest in many rural counties.
- Creating access to affordable child care:
Read the 2021 State of Working North Carolina report
Previous State of Working NC reports
- 2020: Curing What Ails Us: How COVID-19 reveals what’s wrong with our economy and what working people are doing to fix it
- 2019: Equity in Employment: Embracing systems that connect people to good jobs and eliminating barriers helps all of N.C. thrive.
- 2018: How public works can boost North Carolina’s work force and connect rural N.C.
- 2017: How the Recession and a Changed Labor Market Will Affect Millennials in North Carolina for Years to Come
- 2016: Don’t Call It a Carolina Comeback
- 2015: The Future of Work
- 2014: North Carolina’s Tomorrow – Seeking Good, Quality Jobs to Build an Economy that Works for All
- 2013: Lagging recovery highlights need for quality job creation, investments in workers
- 2012: A barometer of the economic recovery in our state
- 2011: Support NC Workers, Strengthen the Economy, Share Prosperity