NCDOT Helps Military Spouses Find Employment With New Partnership

If you are among the large group of military spouses seeking gainful employment in North Carolina, a whole world has now become available to you. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has entered a partnership with the Department of Defense to develop new career opportunities for military families.

NCDOT is now a member of the Military Spouse Employment Partnership, which will help to provide valuable resources for military spouses looking to work within the organization. NCDOT's Human Resources director Amanda Olive expressed enthusiasm about the new partnership in a recent news release.

"We’re excited to enter this partnership to help connect military families to good careers and to continue to develop our workforce," said Olive.

In addition to providing connections and materials to help NCDOT recruit and retain military spouses, the partnership also gives NCDOT’s Human Resources staff access to the online portal to source resumes from prospective candidates.

This partnership seems to be the latest development in NCDOT's ongoing efforts to help our military men and women in North Carolina. A few months ago a study revealed that 7% of the department's entire full-time staff had varying levels of prior military experience. Click here to find out more about NCDOT's job opportunities for military members transitioning to civilian life.

These programs are invaluable for military members and their partners to easily transition into a steady and reliable work schedule. You can visit the North Carolina Department of Transportation's website and take a look at the many job opportunities that they have available. And for added bonus, a state law allows the department to give special preference to eligible veterans.

As the economic world continues to see ebbs and flows, many people are relying on credit to help them get by. But in Fayetteville, that might be harder than most everywhere else, as the city has some of the worst credit scores in the country, according to one study.

Researchers at WalletHub.com analyzed credit scores across 182 cities in the United States, and found that the median credit score in Fayetteville was 628. That landed our community at 176 out of the 182 cities in the study.

Good credit scores are important for a variety of reasons, including buying a home or a car, or even getting approved to rent an apartment.

"Having a good or excellent credit score opens up so many doors for you," said Cassandra Happe, an analyst with WalletHub. "Not only does it help you get approved for future loans and lines of credit, but it also reduces your interest rate and increases the amount you’re able to borrow. A good credit score can even make you a stronger candidate for employment, help you with renting housing, and make you a more attractive dating partner."

Before we get into the rankings, it's important to know that there are a lot of factors at play here. And that it's never too late to do things to improve even the worst credit scores.

WalletHub says these tips are the best for improving your credit scores:

So let's get to some of the rankings for the worst credit scores in the country. We'll look at the top three cities, the bottom three cities, and where a couple of our North Carolina counterparts fall for worst credit scores.

South Burlington comes in at an incredible average credit score of 736. It's also one of the highest income cities according to WalletHub, coming in at 29th.

With an average credit score of 277, San Francisco lands high on the list. It helps that the average income is $107,500 and that it's a financial hub city.

Another high-income city, Huntington Beach averages at 722 also. The city ranks highly in money management, according to WalletHub.

Detroit comes in at the bottom of the list, with a credit score average of 611. A distant gap even above the next worst. The automotive center of the United States fell on hard times during the recession, and during COVID. Rebounding will take a while, but the city has done a lot to reinvent itself.

With a score of 621, this economically-depressed city in Louisiana has struggled in a lot of ways. With a dismal low average in things like credit-card debt, mortgage-debt-to-income-ratio, and more, it's been a tough go of it.

There are actual three cities tied with scores of 624 - Jackson; Newark, New Jersey; and Lewiston, Maine. There are a lot of differences in those three cities, but the one thing they share in common is economic downturn struggles.

The highest-ranked city in North Carolina on the list is Raleigh, with an average credit score of 680.

The Queen City is just a few points behind Raleigh, with an average credit score of 667. Surprising considering how much of the banking industry is centered in Charlotte.

74 - Durham, 677

114 - Winston-Salem, 662

149 - Greensboro, 647

176 - Fayetteville, 628