Ironic indeed....those textile jobs probably left NC at some point in the first place....now NC has better jobs replacing them. This is why you cannot ever plan an economy. No way to know what is coming down the pike...unless you plan....which means protect status quo....which means nothing better ever comes down the pike.
Some of the better jobs are here in east Tennessee. I visit another company that manufactures very complex machines that in various manners input raw cotton samples and subject it to very rigorous quality analysis. The machines are the standard for cotton grading world wide.
Many years ago, a professor at the University of Tennessee created a machine to grade cotton for the world cotton market then headquarted in Memphis. They have grown and prospered and created fantastic technology that the world comes to buy