ABSTRACT
This chapter examines structural changes in North Carolina (NC) over the past few decades, paying particular attention to the recent revival of key manufacturing areas. In the context of increased globalization of production, it examines job decline and the recent reversals in that decline in the traditional sectors of textiles and furniture manufacturing. The chapter comments on the secular growth of non-manufacturing notably the service sector and specialist agriculture. It explores what this means for types of jobs that are being created and their wage rates. The chapter explains the role of institutional actors as agencies for skill creation and the extent to which such policies in a neo-liberal, free market economy often viewed with caution. In NC, particularly the area in the central part of the state has traditionally been a centre for furniture manufacturing for over a century.
