DEL.ICIO.USCarpet capital gone, joblessness moves into Dalton
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Dalton — It has long been a truism here that if you didn’t have a job you weren’t looking too hard.
“It used to be in Dalton you could quit a job at 10 o’clock and have another job at 11,” said Rodger Keeter, a longtime barber downtown. In the 1980s, Dalton drew residents from Kentucky looking for work after the coal mines closed. The past 15 years have seen an influx of Hispanics.
CURTIS COMPTON/ccompton@ajc.com
Donny Horton, 51, of Dalton stands outside the Georgia Department of Labor after searching for a job.
CURTIS COMPTON/ccompton@ajc.com
Eduardo Salazar Jr. (left), 19, and his father, Eduardo Salazar Sr., 44, wait in the lobby of the Georgia Department of Labor while looking for work in Dalton. The younger Salazar, who lost his construction job, was updating his application for employment. His father, who had been employed at a carpet mill for the past 10 years, lost his job two months ago and gets called in to work on a temporary basis when the company can use him. The U.S. Bureau of Labor recently announced the Dalton area ranks second among American cities in its rate of job loss, going from 6.2 percent to 11.2 percent last year. Elkhart, Ind., with a 10.6 point increase, leads the list and drew a visit last week from President Barack Obama.
| Dec. 2008 | Dec. 07 | |
| Georgia | 8.1% | 4.5 |
| Atlanta area | 7.6 | 4.5 |
| Columbus | 7.7 | 5.3 |
| Gainesville | 7.0 | 3.6 |
| Macon | 7.8 | 4.9 |
| Rome | 8.0 | 4.7 |
| Valdosta | 7.4 | 4.2 |
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But the days of the one-hour employment turnaround are gone. The housing crisis has struck hard in the self-proclaimed “Carpet Capital of the World.” Builders aren’t building, so they aren’t buying flooring. Carpet mills are shedding jobs, tearing civic fibers everywhere from Dalton’s renovated historic downtown to “Little Mexico,” the shabby collection of trailers just outside the city limits.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor recently announced the Dalton metro area ranks second among 369 American cities in its rate of job loss, jumping from 6.2 percent to 11.2 percent last year. Elkhart, Ind., with a 10.6 point increase to 15.3 percent, leads the list and drew a visit last week from President Barack Obama.
Dalton residents say the jobless figure is probably worse. Many workers are called in only sporadically these days. And many Hispanics have simply left the area to look for work elsewhere, not bothering to file unemployment claims, some community leaders say.
“Eleven percent?” asked Joe Woelich, bursting into a derisive laughter. “Yeah, right.”
Woelich, a 43-year-old unemployed electrician who worked in carpet mills, got laid off three weeks ago and was stopping by Dalton’s unemployment office to check for new job leads. “There ain’t nothing around here,” he said. He lives with his girlfriend who has a son in the military and another now working at a carpet plant.
“I hate to have a kid pay the bills but…” Woelich said, his voice trailing off.
Unemployment started rising in late 2007, said Kathy Williams, a Georgia Department of Labor official at the Dalton office, “and it’s been downhill ever since.”
That trend continues. The state Labor Department last week announced that in January, 9,260 people in the Dalton area filed their first claims for unemployment, a 165 percent increase from last year and the worst in the state.
Many walking into the unemployment office look bewildered.
“Some people have worked 20 years and have never filled out a job application, gone to a job interview or know how to dress for an interview,” Williams said. “They say ‘I operated a tufting machine my whole life, I don’t know anything else.’ “
Labor department workers urge many to learn transferable skills such as welding or truck driving.
“We encourage people to remain positive, get out. Don’t sit at home. Be around people, be active,” Williams said.
Keith Griffin is taking that advice. His job selling novelty items to convenience stores disappeared two weeks ago, and he comes by the labor office each day to check new listings. “It’s scarce,” the 52-year-old said as he clicked through the offerings.
Griffin, like many in the area, watched the mills slow down and figured his time would come. A few weeks ago a boss told him, “Better get your ear to the ground, it doesn’t look good.”
“It’s a domino effect here, especially when you’re dictated by one industry, which is dictated by housing,” he said, adding he’s glad his wife didn’t retire from her school system job last year.
Signs of hard times are clear immediately after turning off I-75.
A third of the 37 storefronts at Dalton Outlet Shops have “Space for Lease” signs, as do many businesses throughout town. Numerous “For Rent” signs seek tenants to replace the jobless who have left town. “For Sale” signs represent homeowners looking to follow them.
The Daily Citizen recently published 10 pages of foreclosure listings, many with Hispanic names.
“There is no other choice — abandon their house, abandon their properties and go back to their home countries,” said Dr. Pablo Perez, who moved to Dalton 10 years ago after reading a New York Times article about the booming Latino population and the lack of medical care.
“To get a home was an American dream for immigrants,” said Perez, a leader in local Latino organizations. “Two or three families get together to buy a home. But if one family cannot pay, they might have to walk away from that home.”
A 2005 census estimate said 29 percent of the county’s 92,000 residents were Hispanic. Perez believes it probably was more like 40 percent. But the migration may be in reverse. “The real estate people say 20 [percent] to 30 percent of the Latino people are gone.”
Also gone with the jobs are shoppers, buyers and general confidence.
Customer traffic is down on Hamilton Street, a turn-of-the-last-century thoroughfare downtown that is overseen by a statue of Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston.
Ronnie Lipscomb, owner of Dalton Pawn Brokers for 42 years, said plenty of people still want to borrow money from him, but he has to be more selective about what he takes for collateral. Getting stuck with merchandise that won’t sell can kill a business.
Guns are selling, with people afraid the new administration will make it more difficult for citizens to arm themselves. One prospective gun owner liked a sleek 9 mm pistol and asked Lipscomb about putting it on layaway. The shopkeeper paused, considering the request, so the man quickly added: “I’m good for it. My unemployment check comes in Thursday or Friday.”
Surprisingly, most storefronts are filled in the tidy, refurbished downtown. But they are hardly busy.
Kimberly Steed, an interior designer at Georgia Kitchen & Bath Design was using the quiet time to catch up on paperwork.
“It’s tough; it’s ridiculous. We’re barely holding on,” Steed said. She said the business had to lay off three installers, and the owner is forced to pick up small handyman projects to survive. Even leaky faucets.
“We noticed a big change in business in August. And in September it just stopped,” she said. “Everything stopped when the floor industry went bust.”
In 2005, the industry hummed with three shifts going 24/7. Overtime was a given.
“Every plant in a 30-mile radius had jobs it needed filled,” said Brian Anderson, former Whitfield County Commission chairman and now Chamber of Commerce president. The chamber’s Web site still carries a county unemployment figure from those good times — 2.8 percent.
“The collapse came on very quick and was overwhelming,” Anderson said. “Everything is affected. The city, the county and the school system all had to make deep cuts.”
U.S. Carpet production — 85 percent of it is made in Georgia — fell nearly 30 percent since 2005, from 1.4 billion square feet to 1.1 billion square feet, according to Kemp Harr, publisher of Floor Focus Magazine. Two thirds of the residential carpet market is not tied to home building, however, so business could rebound as consumers gain confidence and again start moving and remodeling, he said.
Like Detroit, having life revolve around one industry has caused deep distress and is spurring a civic reckoning in Dalton.
Mayor David Pennington said the county has historically had two kinds of residents — working class and the well off. He said the city must retain college-educated residents, who are moving to surrounding communities but continue to work in Dalton. Cutting taxes, drawing in more entertainment options and working to improve Dalton State College are options, as is diversifying the industrial base.
Anderson agrees. “We need to diversify; we’ve known that for a while,” he said. Plastics, chemical and auto supplies might be good industries to add. “But that’s hard to do when it’s full employment.”
Now, he said, they have time.
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