Ethan Allen moves 300 jobs to Catawba County

Catawba County is on the winning end of a recession-related closure at Ethan Allen. Flagging furniture sales are forcing Ethan Allen to close a furniture plant in California and move those 300 jobs to its facility in Maiden, North Carolina. For an area that's taken a huge hit in manufacturing layoffs, it's welcome news. "That's huge," says Nathan Huret of the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation. "I mean, unfortunately we have 15 percent unemployment and three hundred jobs injected to that is huge." Huret says those three hundred jobs will more than make up for the 150 people Ethan Allen previously laid off in Maiden. They will also pay well - about $40,000 a year, compared to the Catawba County average of $34,200. Huret says the jobs are likely to last, too, since Ethan Allen plans to invest nearly three million dollars expanding its Maiden plant over the next three years.