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NC Works: Working To Connect People With Jobs

NC Workforce Solutions
NC Division of Workforce Solutions

The state Commerce Department has spent the past year making cuts and re-aligning its Division of Workforce Solutions.  Today, administrators say the results are positive.

One initiative getting a lot of attention is NC Works, an online portal developed to better connect the jobless with jobs.

Will Collins is the Executive Director of NC Works.  He's been on the job for six months and likes what he sees.

More than 5,000 employers and 183,000 job seekers have registered at NCWorks.gov.

"And the number I just can't get my head around, and I am still scratching my head , how many page hits we have received.," said Collins.  "Over the past three months we have averaged over 18 million page hits on NCWorks.gov."

Collins says that means North Carolina is very popular and is a place where people want to come for work.

The success of NC Works comes at a time when the Division of Workforce Solutions, formerly known as the Employment Security Commission, was cut by $25 million dollars last year.

“We are doing a more efficient job of operations and we’re bringing our resources in line with the funds that we do have available," said Collins.

Many cuts have come in the form of closing and merging some unemployment offices across the state based on customer activity, staff and community support.  For example, the office in Warrenton is now being provided by the county.  The Workforce Solutions hours in the Tarboro office have been cut from five to two days a week.

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
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