As if Beaufort County hasn’t been suffering enough with double-digit unemployment rates in recent months, it looks like even more jobs have been lost because of legal issues involving Fountain Powerboats.

Fountain employees were sent home Oct. 7 with instructions not to return to work until further notice. Who knows when that notice will come?

Beaufort County has been losing manufacturing jobs for the last 15 years or so. National Spinning is a shadow of its former self. The Singer Furniture plant in Chocowinity is a memory.

Beaufort County needs jobs. Perhaps an answer lies with the expanding health-care industry. Perhaps another answer lies with tourism-related enterprises.

Beaufort County and its unemployed need jobs.

It’s time elected officials did their jobs when it comes to helping create jobs for their constituents.