Some skills learned in banking -- like security for handling huge financial transactions -- are likely transferable to other industries. Those skills are valuable for recruiting. For example, mutual fund giant Vanguard opened a big service center in Charlotte in 1997 in part because the company believed the banks attracted high quality workers.

Queries continue coming from companies looking at the area, even from the battered financial services industry.

"Even this week," McDonald said.

Past losses

Twenty years ago, Duke Power stunned Charlotte with word it would lay off as many as 2,000 people, slashing jobs that for generations were coveted lifetime posts.

Then, Duke was the city's largest employer, with 9,200 workers. Duke's merger with Houston's PanEnergy, announced in 1996, brought years of rumors and worry that the headquarters would leave Charlotte. That never happened and, at 5,200 workers, Duke Energy remains one of the county's largest employers.

Charlotte also survived layoffs hitting businesses ranging from call centers to US Airways, its dominant airline. The big banks have shed jobs many times over the years, although they kept growing through acquisitions. Wachovia recently announced 10,000 job cuts, the bulk outside of Charlotte. Bank of America's $50 billion deal last month for brokerage Merrill Lynch puts at risk some Charlotte jobs, such as investment banking.

"We've weathered that," McCrory said of past layoffs.

One "major recruitment success," he said, was the General Dynamics division that moved to Charlotte from Vermont in 2004. The Virginia defense contractor sought a more central East Coast location for ease of travel and recruiting workers. The company has about 260 workers in Charlotte, including about 160 at a plant that makes detection systems for chemical and biological warfare agents, such as nerve gas.

The factory is part of Mecklenburg's manufacturing sector with total wages of $2.1 billion, making it the fifth largest private paycheck. In 1990, it was No. 1 in employment and wages, accounting for almost 17 percent of county pay.

The region, like the nation, has seen factory jobs disappear because of automation, changing tastes, economic stresses and lower wages abroad. McDonald, with the partnership, ticks off big ones: Mass layoffs at former textile giant Pillowtex. Cuts at Freightliner truck plants. The loss of the Philip Morris cigarette plant in Cabarrus County. Over the years, those losses already put pressure on business recruiters.

"We're in a competitive, global community," McDonald said. "People are trying to beat our pants off. It's our job to go get our piece of the pie."

Staff writer Greg Lacour contributed.

Stella M. Hopkins: 704-358-5173

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