The state Commerce Department has spent the past year making cuts and re-aligning its Division of Workforce Solutions. Today, administrators say the results are positive.
One initiative getting a lot of attention is , an online portal developed to better connect the jobless with jobs.
Will Collins is the Executive Director of NC Works. He's been on the job for six months and likes what he sees.
More than 5,000 employers and 183,000 job seekers have registered at .
"And the number I just can't get my head around, and I am still scratching my head , how many page hits we have received.," said Collins. "Over the past three months we have averaged over 18 million page hits on NCWorks.gov."
Collins says that means North Carolina is very popular and is a place where people want to come for work.
The success of NC Works comes at a time when the Division of Workforce Solutions, formerly known as the Employment Security Commission, was cut by $25 million dollars last year.
鈥淲e are doing a more efficient job of operations and we鈥檙e bringing our resources in line with the funds that we do have available," said Collins.
Many cuts have come in the form of closing and merging some unemployment offices across the state based on customer activity, staff and community support. For example, the office in Warrenton is now being provided by the county. The Workforce Solutions hours in the Tarboro office have been cut from five to two days a week.
