Faculty member Jonathan Morgan’s research informs Edgecombe County efforts to “Get Off the Lists”
To improve its statewide position among North Carolina’s counties in rankings measuring quality of life, Edgecombe County’s public officials adopted an initiative in 2022 known as “Getting Off the Lists" (GOTL). Facing persistent economic distress and ranking 99th out of 100 North Carolina counties in overall community health, county officials—led by Manager Eric Evans—drafted a vision statement to lead Edgecombe County toward an improved future for its residents.
“Our former County Manager, Lorenzo Carmon, used to lament over Edgecombe’s challenges by saying ‘I’m sick and tired of being at the top and bottom of every “bad” list.’ Those unflattering statistics include high unemployment and a high percentage of our citizens living in poverty. So, to fuel our pursuit of a brighter future for our county, we borrowed from Mr. Carmon’s sentiment to create our new call to action of Getting Off the Lists,” Evans said.
Evans convened a wide range of stakeholders to pore through data on benchmarks where the county consistently underperformed its peers. From that convening, they selected four focus areas to aim for improvement: affordable housing; health equity; education and workforce development; and youth and families.
“The county and other organizations are already doing good work in these areas, so we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. What we are looking to do is build a support framework around these existing efforts to increase our outcomes,” Evans said. “If we can maintain that support framework and continue to focus our resources, then we believe that, over time, Edgecombe County will move off the lists.”
Evans felt one issue was foundational to making strides in the rest.
“We know that getting a well-paying job connects to all these other areas,” Evans said. “Having secure employment ties together with better health, housing, and home life. Therefore, it was critical for us to understand why we have chronically high unemployment.”
Before the GOTL initiative’s launch, Evans was already exploring ways to address his county’s high unemployment. In 2020, Edgecombe County received a research grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce. As part of the grant, the county contracted with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to explore the root causes of the high unemployment.
Evans tapped School of Government faculty member and his former instructor Jonathan Q. Morgan to help determine factors contributing to high unemployment in the county.[AB1]
In collaboration with NCGrowth, an initiative of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, Morgan conducted research on the main barriers to employment affecting job seekers in the county.
The process, he said, was the true epitome of an academic partnership.
“The research ended up being a collaborative effort led by me, as the lead faculty member, and supported by a graduate student,” Morgan said, describing the study.
“We worked together to design a survey instrument, a questionnaire that we administered to job seekers in Edgecombe County, to get a better understanding of the kinds of barriers they were facing in finding a job. We wanted to learn their perspectives on the labor market in the county.”
Survey responses revealed three major barriers for the county’s job seekers:
- A lack of well-paying jobs,
- A lack of training to get available jobs, and
- A lack of personal and professional networks
“What we found in the survey was that the respondents were saying, ‘We need greater networks to connect us to resources to close some of the gaps we’re facing,’” Morgan said. “They felt that those gaps—whether they be in transportation or childcare—were preventing them from connecting with resources that could potentially lead to job opportunities.”
With this insight on hand, Evans and his team proposed creating the first-of-its-kind job in county government: a career navigator who could connect job seekers to resources and services, helping applicants overcome barriers cited in Morgan’s survey.
“The idea for that position was directly tied to Dr. Morgan’s study,” Evans said. “We wanted someone who could deliberately go out and find unemployed people in the county, learn about what barriers prevent them from getting a job, connect them to resources to reduce those barriers, and get them the training and skills needed to get to work.”
Evans asked his board for funding for the role; with their approval, the county hired Tracy Puddy in the position. She has been in the role since November 2023.
In less than a year, Evans said he already has seen the positive results of Puddy’s position—and he plans to expand the scope of the role in the future.
“She has met with more than 100 people to help connect them to resources. She not only helps them get in the door to find a job, but she stays in touch with them and serves as a resource,” he said. “We have plans to find funding to hire more career navigators in the coming years.”
In tackling the barrier to accessibility to well-paying jobs for its residents, the county has also seen recent success.
Natron Energy, a manufacturer of sodium-ion batteries, announced in September 2024 plans to bring $1.4 billion in investment and more than1,000 jobs to Edgecombe County.
In preparation for the company’s arrival to the county, Edgecombe County officials are making plans to improve another barrier listed in Morgan’s study: a lack of available training to attain jobs.
With the coming launch of a new program, “Jobs are Coming, Get Ready Edgecombe,” Evans’s team is working with the Edgecombe Community College to encourage citizens to take advantage of training opportunities to gain skills Natron Energy and other employers look for when hiring.
“We have to make sure we are ready to capitalize on this opportunity,” he said. “We want our residents prepared with the type of skills and training that the company seeks in employees. Our focus is on helping to funnel as many of our people into this pipeline as we can so that when Natron starts hiring, we have our residents well-equipped.”
For Morgan, the process to improve workforce development in Edgecombe County—from the idea to the research to its implementation—is one that could easily serve as a model for other counties.
“I think there's a road map here in terms of how a county that may be in a similar position can go about engaging the community around whatever the key issues might be,” Morgan said. “The pressing issues may differ from county to county, but I suspect education and workforce issues are something to be addressed in almost every county on some level.”
With two years of promising results since the initiative launched, Evans sees reason for optimism in Edgecombe County’s ability to proactively plan for a stronger economic future.
“This is a concentrated and focused effort to consistently go out and find unemployed people and get them employed,” he said. “We are not waiting for them to come to us for help; we are going out and finding the people who need us.”
Jonathan Q. Morgan is a professor of public administration and government at the School of Government. He teaches, advises public officials, and conducts applied research on economic development. Morgan's research has focused on industry cluster-based development, the role of local government in economic development, business incentives, development impact analysis, and innovative, homegrown approaches to job creation.
Morgan’s recently released fifth edition of the North Carolina Economic Development Handbook serves as an educational resource for public officials, policymakers, practitioners, community leaders, and interested citizens across the state.