Issue Position: Our Jobs - The Dorthey Lee Jackson Murdock Plan

Issue Position

We must work to ensure our residents are provided with the training and skills needed to compete in an ever-changing economy. As a minority and woman business owner, I know the benefit of having goals to ensure that contracting opportunities are made available to all. As a small business owner, I know how hard it is to grow and expand. Let's work to support small businesses and entrepreneurship. As new businesses come to our community, let's make sure they hire locally.

According to MIT's living wage calculator, the minimum wage in North Carolina is far below the wage necessary for a person working full time to support themselves--that is, to pay for food, shelter, medical care, and transportation. Further, in Durham County, transportation and housing make up almost 60% of a single person's yearly expenses--20% and 40% respectively. 16% of Durham County residents live below the poverty level, and a community health assessment recently identified poverty as one of the top three community priorities for Durham County residents. In Durham County, women ages 25-34 are most likely to live in poverty, and black and brown residents are more likely to live in poverty than white residents. Yet, the unemployment rate in Durham County is currently at 3.1%.

North Carolina's private sector experienced a 1.2% job increase from February 2018 to February 2019, a drop from 1.7% growth between February 2017 and February 2018. Since 2015, the entrepreneurship growth rate in North Carolina, currently at .27%, has decreased by 12%. Over the past 10 years, there has been a 36% decline in loans made to small businesses and entrepreneurs, and 805,985 entrepreneurs in North Carolina are operating without employees. Further, 53% of entrepreneurs need less than $100,000 to start their business, and 63% used their own savings to start their business. Despite all this, small businesses employ almost half the private workforce in North Carolina.

As a minority and woman business owner, Natalie Murdock knows how hard it can be to start a new business. She knows from her own personal experience the challenges businesses in North Carolina face as they grow and expand. Natalie Murdock is personally invested in making the economy work for all North Carolinians, and she's willing to fight for your jobs.

We must work to ensure our residents are provided with the training and skills needed to compete in an ever-changing economy. Let's work to support small businesses and entrepreneurship. As new businesses come to our community, let's make sure they hire locally.

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