GREENSBORO, N.C. - Layoffs of North Carolina's textile and apparel workers have continued at such a rate that 2005 may be recorded as the second-worst year ever for the industry, say economists.
"I think we could lose as many as 20,000 jobs this year," says Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte. "We are going to see another round of significant layoffs."
The highest number of layoffs came in 2001 when the industry lost 25,000 jobs.
Other economists expect anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 layoffs this year.
Whatever this year's tally, the final numbers will be one more blow for what was once a bedrock industry in the state. Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that North Carolina's textile and apparel industry has lost more than 160,000 jobs since 1994.
"Layoffs have been incessant," said Patrick Conway, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Layoffs ripple through the economy, forcing state and local officials to stretch their budgets to provide unemployment and educational assistance to displaced workers.
"When a company like (WestPoint Stevens) closes down... it affects more than the people inside the plant," says Mac Williams, president of the Alamance County Chamber of Commerce. "If it happens to the significant level that it has in Alamance County and North Carolina, you start losing the foundation of your economy."
One worker who was laid off this year is Rose Wilson, who was told Jan. 12 that she no longer had a job sewing at the WestPoint Stevens plant that sprawls alongside Interstate 40/85 in Burlington. By late March or early April, the bedding manufacturer will close, putting all 560 of its employees out of work.
"It don't feel good, I'll tell you that," said the 53-year-old widow from Graham, who earned $11.50 an hour. "I'm just feeling kind of scared. I planned to retire there."
Wilson will be one of the first textile and apparel workers in the state to be laid off this year. She won't be the last.
She said she can't figure why so many textile jobs have disappeared.
"I don't understand why they keep shipping our jobs overseas," she says. "It's as if people here in the U.S. don't have to live."
Job losses in the textile industry aren't new. Employment figures show that the state's textile and apparel industry has bled jobs every year since 1992, when it added 300. The industry averaged about 5,000 job losses from 1973 to 1993.
Layoffs occurred for various reasons - automation of plants, corporate cost cutting, plant consolidations, a gradual phaseout of trade restraints called quotas, a prolonged recession, a spate of bankruptcies, and a series of free-trade agreements.
Losses also are part of a cycle. The textile industry moved to North Carolina and other Southern states from the North at the beginning of the 20th century because Southern workers earned less money. Now, the cycle has moved jobs to Mexico, the Caribbean and China, where people earn between 35 cents and 85 cents an hour.
With the 40-year-old quota system gone - it expired Jan. 1 after a 10-year phaseout - many textile leaders expect China will come to dominate the international market at the cost of millions of jobs worldwide.
"I think there will always be a textile market in North Carolina," says Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State. "It will be very highly automated, niche markets where quick change and quick delivery might be important."
Walden says some economists expect the industry will wind up with around 20,000 to 25,000 workers. That's down from the current employment level of just over 102,000.
Others provide a more optimistic forecast.
"We could easily drop down to between 50,000 and 70,000 jobs by the time this all ends," said Gary Gereffi, a sociology professor at Duke University. "I can easily see another third of the remaining jobs disappearing."
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Information from: News & Record, http://www.news-record.com
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