LEXINGTON – If you want to know how the erosion of a traditional industry due to offshoring can burden a community, Davidson County may serve as a poster child for the topic.

Cities such as Thomasville and Lexington have been devastated during the past decade as American-based furniture manufacturers shut down longtime furniture factories and moved production to low-cost foreign locations, such as China, and the impact of that economic shift was reflected in figures released Tuesday at the Davidson County Economic Development Commission annual meeting.

County economic developers actually recorded a solid year amid tough times in 2009 expanding the county’s business base, reported EDC Executive Director Steve Googe during the meeting at the Sapona Country Club.

Davidson County had $207.9 million in new and expanding industry announcements last year, the best in the Piedmont and sixth-best in the state. New and expanding industries in the county led to announcements of 1,360 new jobs, fourth-best in the state, the EDC reports.

“We’ve all been struggling with the economy, but investment in 2009 was the best since we’ve been keeping records,” Googe told county leaders gathered for the presentation.

But those gains in 2009 are set against the backdrop of manufacturer and job losses during the past 20 years as furniture companies that supplied paychecks for generations moved offshore.

County furniture manufacturing employment declined 82 percent from 8,806 in 1990 to 1,603 last year, EDC figures show. Another target of offshoring – the textile industry – recorded a 91 percent drop in county manufacturing employment during the past two decades, from 4,781 in 1990 to 425 last year.

The annual average number of unemployed people in the county increased nearly four times from 2,601 in the year 2000 to 9,953 last year, the EDC reports. The county’s annual average jobless rate increased from 3.3 percent in 2000 to 12.6 percent last year.

The county’s most recent unemployment rate is 11.7 percent for July, an improvement from last year but still among the highest in the Piedmont, according to figures from the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

One way for Davidson County to promote growth is to tap into development from the FedEx Corp. cargo hub and Piedmont Triad International Airport as the region becomes a logistics and distribution center for the East Coast, said businessman David Congdon. Groups such as the Piedmont Triad Partnership also are marketing the region, said Congdon, president of Old Dominion Freight Lines.

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For more information about the 2009 Davidson County annual economic report, call the Davidson County Economic Development Commission at 243-1900.