To be, rather than to seem.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott
• Position: CAPITAL GOODS

It would be interesting to know how many times in the last eight years Mike Easley has uttered something about the challenges of competing in a global economy. Perhaps two or three thousand? North Carolina's outgoing governor isn't alone. For politicians, educators, economists and business executives, the battle cry has become a tedious refrain. Everyone knows that, for more than two decades, low-skill manufacturing jobs have been moving overseas. In one recent three-year period, North Carolina lost nearly 40,000 jobs. Manufacturers who have survived--even those running small operations with just a handful of employees--pick up the phone to call Hong Kong for custom-designed parts that can be delivered in a few days.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In the age of the Internet and tumbling trade barriers, it's a small, small world in which we live and must compete, so public policy focuses on how our future work force must adapt to it. But plumbers don't compete in a global economy. Nor do carpenters, nurses and store clerks. Even though demand for these kinds of jobs is growing in North Carolina, they're often overlooked. Some $3.6 billion--about 17% of the state operating budget--is spent each year to run public universities and community colleges. Even if higher education is about more than just preparing people for jobs, taxpayers ought to expect that this money be spent with work-force needs in mind.

Policymakers aren't ignoring the issue. The N.C. Commission on Workforce Development, which includes elected and appointed officials, business executives and union leaders, issues reports every few years. This past summer, UNC Chapel Hill researchers issued the second part of a study commissioned by the state Department of Commerce to identify as recruiting targets industries likely to experience substantial job growth. A recent effort called The University of North Carolina Tomorrow has begun examining ways the system must change to meet all types of challenges.

But often the people who put these reports together focus on their hopes for North Carolina rather than what they find the state to be. There's nothing wrong with that. Without dreams, Research Triangle Park might still be farm fields. Nevertheless, projections by the Employment Security Commission show growth in occupations that don't appear to be threatened by global competition or require years and years of education beyond high school. The most substantial growth in the next eight years...