Stakeholders discuss high unemployment rate in Scotland

LAURINBURG — An employee at Service Thread in Laurinburg was doing well on her job so the natural course of action was to give that employee a pay raise, but shortly thereafter, she resigned.

“She said ‘I really hate to do it but I’m going to lose my house.’ She was getting something from the Housing Authority. I’m not sure how it works but it’s based on your income,” said Jay Todd, the chief operations officer for Service Thread. “She put her notice in. She left.”

That is just one of the barriers mentioned by employers present at the roundtable discussion held Friday at the Scotland County Emergency Operations Center to bring stakeholders together to address the fact that Scotland County has the highest unemployment rate in the state at 6.7%, according to July figures released by the NC Department of Commerce. The unemployment rate in Scotland has slowly been on the rise since April when it peaked this year at 6.8%, and it took the number-one spot. In May the unemployment rate dropped to 6.2%, then rose to 6.5% in June.

“We’re going to figure out what can we do because it doesn’t matter anymore about whose fault it is or whose blame it is,” said Mark Ward, director of Economic Development for Scotland County. “It doesn’t matter cause the state says we have the highest unemployment.”

“Somebody is going to say well it’s the way the state configures the numbers, well it’s not. I’ve done some research … Trust me. I want to say that the data was wrong. The data is not,” Ward added.

Leaders representing Scotland County, St. Andrews University, Richmond Community College, the City of Laurinburg, the town of Wagram, Scotland County Schools, NC Works, the Lumber River Council of Governments and more heard from employers, who shared their struggles to hire and retainworkers within the county and sought for help to find a solution.

At times, discussions got passionate.

“We’ve got to find out what are the barriers keeping some people from getting the jobs available in this community … We’re not here to point fingers at anybody. That’s not going to help anything. What we need to do is find us a plan of action that will help increase our workforce,” said Rep. Garland Pierce, the organizer of the discussion.

Among the hurdles mentioned were failed drug tests, and a lack of daycare, housing or the basic soft skills on what is expected of employees when they enter the job field.

Tyler Graves, regional director of Operations of WePak, said failed drug tests are a major hindrance to the company’s workforce.

“If we drug screen 30 employees, eight to 10 fail their urine analysis test,” Graves said.

Todd said the culture we’re living in today could be one of the major factors.

“Maybe living at home with mom and dad and grandma is totally acceptable,” Todd said. “Maybe as long as I have enough to pay for the little six by four glass square that I live in, maybe that’s enough. Maybe I can make a little bit of money and go on Instagram vacation and I’m good for the next three months. That’s what I suspect.

“We’re not promoting the right values that hard work is good. That we start at $11 but that’s a start. You can aspire to do more. I think that’s something we should work on.”

Stephanie Littles, operations manager at NCWorks Career Center Scotland County, said employers should be held accountable as well.

“Everything is more. We have to do more with less and so when these individuals come in and they happen to get positions in some of your industries and some of your businesses, (and) they’re not treated fair … That’s one of the things, it’s culture. If we’re going to pay them $15 an hour then treat them like they’re worth that $15 an hour.”

Littles emphasized that employees should be treated fairly.

“Sometimes we’re professionals but sometimes when we’re in our positions, we don’t act like professionals. We’re entitled and we have to be equitable and fair when we talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, you gotta include everybody,” Littles said.

Scotland County Commissioner B.J. Gibson said employees should not be treated like “animals.”

“A lot of people don’t feel like they’re appreciated … Most of you all know that we deal with a different generation. What 19-year-olds kind of took 10 or 20 years ago, they’ll walk away and find something else to do and sometimes that means breaking into our houses and cars, getting what they want,” Gibson said.

Rep. Pierce said he believed a lot of information was shared and misinformation debunked following the discussion.

“I learned a lot. I think we all gleaned some information from some things we didn’t know,” Pierce said.

Some of the key takeaways recorded from the meeting is that there is a need for more open communication between employees and NC Works and children must be targeted early by ensuring they stay and school and are exposed to mentorships so that they learn the soft skills needed to participate in the workforce.

The largest employment industries in Scotland are the health care and social assistance, educational services, public administration and manufacturing industries.