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One by one, the graduates marched to the front of the room to collect their diplomas, grinning, dabbing away tears and, in some cases, dancing back to their seats.
Some members of this group, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont's latest job-training class, have already gotten jobs. Most, though, left Friday's graduation ceremony, held in the Carole Hoefner community center uptown, facing one of the toughest job markets in years.
After several months of promising signs, spurring talk that the worst was over, North Carolina's unemployment rate climbed to 11 percent in October, government data released Friday show. That's the highest since June, and the ninth straight month of double-digit unemployment.
“It's going to be tough,” said Monica Barrett, 54, a new graduate who enrolled in the Goodwill program after losing her longtime job with an insurance company. “There are jobs out there; you just have to know how to sell yourself.”
Friday's unemployment figures were a grim reminder that, though many economists say the recession ended this summer, the recovery could be slow and painful. Unemployment in the Charlotte region is even higher, 11.6 percent in September, according to the latest data from the N.C. Employment Security Commission.
That's caused interest in Goodwill's free job-training programs and resources to surge. The agency served more than 13,300 job-seekers last year, up from 6,500 in 2007. This year, that number is expected to top 16,000, Goodwill spokesman Bo Hussey said.
“I like the fact that these programs help people who want to help themselves,” he said.
For more information on Goodwill's job-training classes, visit www.goodwillsp.org.
