North Carolina’s economy remains unstable despite some signs indicating moderate improvement. Two unrelated but telling reports released recently point to the deeper problems across our state.

The N.C. Rural Economic Development Center reports that our state has 91,000 fewer jobs than were reported in 2000. Only six in 10 people who lost their jobs during the recession have now found work. Unreported but accepted is that many of those who found jobs are earning less than they were previously paid. While North Carolina’s unemployment rate is dropping, many have run out of benefits or are no longer registered.

The N.C. Institute of Medicine task force amplified the issues in stating that nearly 20 percent of our citizens under the age of 65 lack health insurance, an increase of 300,000 from 2000. This startling change demonstrates the unemployment and underemployment problems many face, since the option not to have health coverage is usually economically driven. Rural areas reported disproportionately larger percentages of uninsured than urban regions.

Clearly this is why Gov. Mike Easley and our economic developers are so eager to offer huge incentive packages to large industries to locate in our state. While this strategy will help reduce overall unemployment it doesn’t address the bigger issue. These new industries primarily locate in the more urban areas, but many of the textile, furniture, and other manufacturing jobs lost were located in rural areas.

Easley likes to say that we are “one North Carolina,” but the sad truth is that we are increasingly becoming two North Carolinas — the growing, prosperous and thriving urban areas, typically identified as the I-85 crescent, versus the expanding depressed rural areas east of I-95 and the far western parts of our state.

We don’t have an effective economic development plan to change that course. Previous attempts to address and resolve the “two North Carolinas” problem came up empty, but we can no longer afford to throw up our hands in despair over this knotty issue.

Court decisions requiring that we pour more state resources into low-wealth counties for education are a prophecy for what lies ahead. Until we find solutions, we will morally or legally be required to put more and more state resources into these economically depressed areas. To be sure, we have the brainpower within our state to determine real solutions to these problems. The overarching question is whether we have the will to do so.