Abstract:
During World War II, North Carolina residents moved to the Portsmouth-Norfolk-Newport News area in Virginia to find jobs in the shipbuilding industry. Wartime efforts created a great need for laborers and demand raised average wages from $45 to $125 a week. Shipbuilding, ship repair, and other defense industries required the greatest number of workers. Higher salaries for office work also tempted women away from clerical work in rural North Carolina.