Good North Carolina news

The race is on to have the economy of the future, which will deliver jobs and prosperity. And N.C. Cooperative Extension economist Mike Walden says that some statistics suggest that North Carolina is doing well in this race.

“Well , if we look at the recent data on economic sectors and how they performed since the start of the recession, North Carolina shines in four of them — farming, information, finance and professional skills. And each of those sectors we not only saw an increase in them even during the recessionary years and in the year after the recession, but we also saw increases that exceeded the increases at the national level.

“Now why are we excited about these four sectors? Well, economists and others who looked down the future say that there’s good reason to think that these four sectors should grow in the future economy.

“Farming, because of the need to feed an increasingly growing world, not only growing in terms of people, but in terms of money spent on food.

“Information. Obviously the information sector is tied to technology, and we’re going to have more technological advances.

“Finances. In order to grow, you have to facilitate the financing in that growth. So, the finance sector should be a growth area.

“And then professional skills — that’s obviously applying complex learning and complex skills. And if any change has happened in the last generation it’s going to increase in those.

“So, North Carolina although we’ve certainly suffered during this recession, we may have a head start on the future.”