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Assistance available for dislocated workers

Shift workers leave Pactiv Evergreen's Canton paper mill for the final time. Cory Vaillancourt photo

A substantial grant from the U.S. Department of Labor has already provided help for more than 50 dislocated workers in Western North Carolina, but Southwestern Commission Workforce Development Director David Garrett wants to get the word out that they’re looking to help a whole lot more.

“We have another 15 months or so, or longer than that, to help somebody if their training goes past that. We’re going to have to start thinking of how we’re going to fund that if it goes past that time,” Garrett said, in response to a question from Haywood County Commissioner Jennifer Best during an Oct. 2. meeting. “So it is time sensitive, and I encourage folks to come talk to a career counselor, come talk to one of our program managers. If you’re eligible now, establish that eligibility. You might not think you want training today, but if that changes in two months, we can still help you.”

Garrett told The Smoky Mountain News last week that they’d already received $2 million in funding, with the possibility of another $4 million to come depending on need, but either way, the funding will expire on May 31, 2025.

The funding is available for dislocated workers — not just from Pactiv Evergreen, but from any enterprise — in Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, Swain and Transylvania counties who want to learn a new skill or pursue educational attainment up to an associate degree.

But the funding isn’t strictly limited to salaried or hourly workers. Self-employed workers may also be eligible, including contractors affected by a “major economic disruption in the community,” according to the program website, wncdislocatedworkergrant.com .

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Even household family members who are dependent on the income of a dislocated worker, like spouses, may be eligible for assistance.

“If there’s a spouse that wasn’t working maybe or had to bump from part time to full time because their spouse lost [their job] we have the potential to help them too,” Garrett said. “So it’s not just the workers, it could be their family members too.”

Workers who took “stopgap” jobs for less pay or with longer commutes may also be eligible, and Garrett said he’d love to talk to them.

The website lists more than three dozen separate career tracks for workers, including industrial and building trades skills like carpentry, HVAC and welding; professional occupations like early childhood education, law enforcement, and various computer engineering certifications; and medical or health fields like medical transcription, nursing and radiology.

Managed by a consortium of well-known WNC nonprofits, namely the Southwestern Workforce Development Board, the Southwestern Commission council of local governments, NCWorks and the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board, the funding doesn’t have to stop once retraining is complete.

“In a perfect world, we’re going to not only pay for your training. If you’re still eligible right there, we’re going to make those placements straight to an employer that’s hiring,” said Garrett.

Employers looking to hire dislocated workers can also cash in — Garrett said the funding can be used to offset 50% to 75% of the wages of their new hires for up to 1,000 hours, or about six months.

“There’s always a skills gap when you hire somebody, and it’s very expensive to bridge that gap before they become an effective worker,” he said.

Garrett is especially interested in getting that message out to local and regional employers, so as much of the funding as possible remains in the area.

Since July, the program has served 53 people, according to Garrett. A majority of them, he said, are former employees of the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton, which unexpectedly announced back in March that it would close in June. When it did, about a thousand workers were directly affected.

There are still about 40 workers at the mill who have been working simultaneously at keeping the lights on and shutting the facility down. Garrett said they’re trying to get to those workers as soon as possible to ensure a soft landing when they’re finally released near the end of this month.

The ripple effect of the mill’s closing on other businesses and workers can’t conclusively be measured, however Garrett said he’d heard that only 47 workers have drawn unemployment compensation to date. That tracks well with statistics from the state agency responsible for measuring the state’s overall economic health.

Within the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison Counties, unemployment as a whole was 2.9% for August, unchanged from July and down from 3.4% in August 2022. The August figure is the lowest of the state’s 15 MSAs.

North Carolina’s Department of Commerce estimates that in the MSA this past August, there were a total of 208,300 nonfarm jobs, up 1,200 from July and up 5,700 from August 2022.

The professional and business services sector led the way by adding 1,800 jobs, an 8.5% increase from last year. Positions in the education and health services sector grew by 6.4%, or about 2,300 jobs.

Manufacturing job growth, however, has been flat. Figures show a net loss of 100 jobs over the past year, leaving 22,100 manufacturing positions in the MSA. But that’s a net loss — without shedding hundreds of manufacturing jobs at Pactiv Evergreen back in June, the MSA would have seen strong growth in the manufacturing sector.

“To be honest with you, I’m not sure if we’re going to see a big uptick in [unemployment claims],” Garrett said.

So far, it’s not materialized.

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Unemployment in Haywood County was just 3.2% in August, up from 3.1% the previous month. That figure gives Haywood County a ranking of 15 out of all 100 North Carolina counties. In August 2022, when the mill was still operating, unemployment was 3.5%.

Other counties in the 11-county region affected by the grant show similar figures. Swain County is ranked first in the state, with an astonishingly low 2.7% unemployment rate. Buncombe County ranks second, with 2.8%. Unemployment rates are still above 4% in Clay and Graham counties, ranking them at 70 and 80 respectively — in a very competitive state — but most economists agree that anything under 6% is still considered “healthy.”

Commissioner Brandon Rogers commended the Southwestern Commission for its rapid response to the Pactiv Evergreen crisis, and its continuing involvement.

“From the day we found out that Evergreen was closing, you guys were on the scene the next day here,” Rogers said. “Maybe that same day.”

Get help

If you’re a dislocated worker, a family member or an employer, a group of Western North Carolina nonprofits has grant funding that might help you get the resources you need to achieve your goals. The National Dislocated Worker Grant for WNC is administered by the Southwestern Workforce Development Board, the Southwestern Commission council of local governments, NCWorks and the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board. Opportunities are not strictly limited to former employees of Pactiv Evergreen, so visit wncdislocatedworkergrant.com to learn about available resources, and whether you qualify.

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