Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"The U.S. government does these reports every couple of years, and they're looking, really, for fast employment growth in about five economic sectors. One, of course, is going to be health care. Health care is growing because of changing demographics, because people are more interested in health. So jobs in health care, that's going to go everywhere from hospitals to doctors and practitioners in doctor's offices. That's going to be a big job creator. Another cluster is going to be in what I would call construction, real estate, engineering, architecture, jobs relating to building things. It's projected after we get rid of this housing glut, we're going to go back to a situation of building more homes. We need a lot of rebuilding, for example, of our infrastructure in the country. So that should be a growing sector. Technology, clearly that's a growing job sector; technology, everywhere from biotech to computers to now, I think, energy technology. That will generate a lot of jobs. Finance management and consulting. Again, finance doesn't look so good now. Once we get over this rough patch, though, that area should grow. And finally, retail and wholesale sales. That's always a big sector in term of jobs. Simply, as the population grows, which it is expected to do, we will see jobs there grow. Now, overall manufacturing. I haven't mentioned manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs will dip, but in selected areas, there will be increases in jobs in manufacturing, particularly in metals manufacturing, aerospace manufacturing and very important to North Carolina, boat building."