In a US manufacturing hub, no illusions about tariffs and jobs

Open positions: The sewing lines at Bernhard Furniture Company are growing and in need of more skilled craft workers. — Reuters

IN A town where a 30-feet tall chair is the chief landmark, and which is synonymous with a US furniture industry decimated over the years by imports from China, many greet the possibility of tariffs on Chinese goods with a shrug.

No wonder. Of three once bustling Thomasville furniture plants in the city limits, one is being demolished and cleared for parkland, another may become the site of a new police station, and a third is being converted into apartments.