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Many in the Triad remember the catastrophic layoffs that began in the 1990s with the implosion of textile, apparel and furniture manufacturing.

The unemployment rate is rising again — up to 8.1 percent for the Greensboro-High Point Metro Area —  but for different reasons.

“Textile and furniture manufacturing was hit so hard back then. That’s really what drove the (last) recession in North Carolina,” said Larry Parker, a spokesman for the N.C. Employment Security Commission. “Now, it’s really a global and national thing.”

Things were different in the 1990s, when free trade allowed manufacturers to permanently close decades-old factories in the Triad to chase cheap labor in Mexico and Asia.

“Something was broken last time. That’s not the case this time,” said Dan Lynch, the president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, Greensboro’s industrial recruiter. “Locally, it wasn’t anybody’s fault, but we were losing industry that could go offshore, and we were left with a portion of workers that wasn’t prepared for the next generation of jobs. That’s not the case this time. This is a global recession.”

The recession is hitting most job categories, although education and health care are still bright spots.

The ESC keeps an unofficial tally of businesses that close or lay off workers. And even the small figures are telling.

Retailers and restaurants, for example, laid off 258 workers in 2007 throughout the Greensboro/High Point region that covers Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham counties.

In 2008, that number grew to 429 as more businesses closed.

And that’s just from the companies that file reports. Thousands more workers are likely to show up on unemployment rolls in coming months, Lynch and Parker said.

It’s frustrating to Lynch and local educators who have worked hard in the past decade to retrain the work force for higher-skill jobs in the information economy.

But a new recession is not an excuse to stop. It may mean a change in tactics to help local workers, GTCC President Don Cameron said.

The community college announced Tuesday that it will double the size of its Quick Jobs With a Future program — classes designed to retrain displaced workers for new careers in 90 days.

GTCC began the program to help workers move from obsolete industries into new careers with plenty of jobs in information technology, medicine and supply chain work, for example.

Now, few companies are hiring.

“This recession we’re in now is different than it was in ’03 when we started the Quick Jobs program,” Cameron said. “It is certainly a different environment. We’re having to think through things differently. Do we have the number of employers ready to hire now? No.”

The recession will be long, he said, but he won’t slow down.

“We need to take a look at exactly where we can find those employment opportunities for these people,” Cameron said. “Are we having to work longer and harder to find those jobs? Yes. It’s different. If things do not do well, it won’t be because we didn’t try.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com