«How does the state expand its workforce? Cooper suggested leveraging North Carolina’s 800,000 veterans; Allowing in more immigrants; retraining the formerly incarcerated; and encouraging governments and private businesses to increase the hiring of people with disabilities.

“We can attract the jobs. Those jobs can be created by business people. But if we don’t have strong, smart, dedicated, diverse people to fill those positions, then we got a problem,” Cooper said.

After the forum, the governor told reporters that a healthy workforce is also an important factor in the discussion. To that end, he’s encouraging state lawmakers to finally expand Medicaid coverage in the state.»

https://abc11.com/emerging-issues-forum-north-carolina-business-workforce-workers/12810350/