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OBSERVATIONS
May 8, 2020 |
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 Wingate Lassiter |
Brace yourself for some startling
statistics about local unemployment
We won't get the state's April unemployment statistics for Johnston County until the end of the month, and they're not going to be pretty. In the meantime, we can get some idea of what to expect from statewide reports about unemployment claims that are issued daily.
The state's jobless report for March --- which included county-by-county breakdowns --- showed 210,268 North Carolinians receiving unemployment payments. That number included 3,845 Johnstonians out of work and looking for jobs. The March report put the statewide labor force at 4,982,207, including 99,063 Johnston County residents available for employment.
Currently, the N.C. Department of Commerce's daily posting of unemployment payments shows 464,510 claimants paid --- more than double the number for March --- with 1,069,250 claims filed as of May 6, including 895,255 related to the COVID-19 outbreak (data from the chart below).
If we apply the math to Johnston County, we may have as many as 8,500 residents currently receiving unemployment compensation and perhaps more than 21,000 who have filed for unemployment insurance payments to date.
Just statistics, you say. But behind every number is a person, a family, a community dealing with hardship we never expected to see in our lifetime.
The latest state report like the one displayed here may be viewed online>
LETTER FROM A READER
School board's election plan is
"short-sighted"
To The Editor:
To The Editor:
I am a bit surprised at your endorsement of the Johnston County School Board’s current plan for creating districts for the board's seven members. The current plan to use high-school attendance districts is short-sighted.
I am not opposed to elections by districts, but high-school districts will change over time and additional high schools will be built. This will create confusion for voters and does not serve the long-term needs of the county.
As you rightly note, the Johnston County Commissioners badly need to revise their districts to balance the population changes that have occurred since 1994. Wouldn’t it be a better plan for the Board of Education to work with our County Board of Commissioners to devise seven geographic districts balanced by population?
Wouldn’t voters be better served if their commissioner and Board of Education representative came from their geographic community?
And does any of this take into account our severe lack of diversity on either of these boards? How do we improve the opportunity for minority citizens to sit on either of these boards?
Surely we can be more innovative than the current conversation.
--- DENTON LEE, Cleveland Township
who further identifies himself as a "former member of the Board of Education and a proud citizens of the Cleveland Community, with 26,000 residents and no representative on the Board of Commissioners!"
CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION IN THREE EASY STEPS
Simply follow the "Three W's" to protect yourself from COVID-19 --- advice put forth by N.C. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mandy Cohen this week....
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