SPRUCE PINE , North Carolina ( CNN ) -- Like most parents , Vickie and Keith Murdock worry about providing for their family . With three teenage daughters , that can be a big challenge , but these days it 's more difficult than ever . Keith and Vickie Murdock retrained for new jobs after suffering layoffs . But they remain unemployed . Vickie and Keith are both out of work . They live in Spruce Pine , North Carolina , a tiny mountain town about an hour 's drive northeast of Asheville that has lost more than 2,000 jobs since 2003 . That 's a devastating number , given that Mitchell County 's 2000 Census population was only 15,687 . Keith was laid off in 2001 , when a textile mill closed . He had worked there for 13 years . He did what all the experts say to do : He went back to school , got his GED and retrained to be an auto body mechanic . After graduation , he found a job at nearby Altec Industries . But again , he was laid off in January . Today , he spends his time looking for work . Keith said `` everybody you talk to '' tells him , `` 'well , we 're not hiring . We ai n't got nothing open right now . ' `` Vickie has suffered her own layoff . She lost her job in 2006 when furniture maker Ethan Allen closed its plant in the area . She decided to retrain and will graduate from the local community college in May as a certified medical assistant . Vickie hopes to get a job at a local clinic , but jobs are hard to come by in this area . Major industries , including textile manufacturing , furniture making and mining , have downsized or left the area completely . The Rev . Bill Sweetser works with Shepherd 's Staff , a local food pantry . He says workers there are seeing three times as many clients as they did just last year . Watch how the Murdocks have struggled against the bad economy » . The food bank is in an old textile mill that just a few years ago was one of the largest employers in Mitchell County . Now , former workers come there for assistance . `` Right now , I would say we 're barely keeping up , '' Sweetser said . `` Our policy is that everybody who comes in will get something . Sometimes we 're out of certain staples . ... It may not be the food you want to give them , it may not be the food they necessarily prefer , but we give them something . '' Community leaders are hoping a focus on promoting mountain crafts and tourism and a growing second home market will spur an economic revitalization . Keith Holtsclaw runs Blue Ridge Regional Hospital , one of the area 's largest employers , and heads the county 's economic development commission . `` I just do n't see manufacturing coming back into the community , '' he said . `` We have to work with what we 've got . We have lots of artists here . We are great , we 're on the Blue Ridge Parkway , we 're on the Appalachian Trail ... so we need to play to our strengths . '' Until that economic revitalization happens , Vickie and Keith Murdock are living off unemployment benefits and hoping to find work soon . Vickie tries to calm her anxiety about the everyday costs of life . `` We think that when we get to worrying how we are gon na pay for this , '' she said , `` it 's like the Lord makes a way . '' For the Murdock family and this community , a new way to stimulate the local economy is desperately needed .
Spruce Pine , N.C. , has lost 2,000 jobs in a county of about 15,600 residents . Some laid-off workers have retrained , only to lose their jobs again . Closed factory that employed thousands has become a food bank . Community leaders hope to revitalize economy by attracting tourists .