Former furniture workers may be ideal or Forsyth County, N.C., Dell plant.

Byline: Laura Giovanelli

Dec. 23--LEXINGTON, N.C. -- Tammy Hodge's last unemployment check arrived in the mail yesterday. While Forsyth County and Winston-Salem officials celebrated Dell, Inc.'s decision to put its new manufacturing plant in Forsyth, she was at the employment security commission office in Lexington, looking for work.

A furniture worker who was laid off from Lexington Home Brands in May 2003, at 33, Hodge has spent the months since starting over, taking pre-requisite classes in hopes of entering Forsyth Tech's radiography program to become an x-ray technician.

She is also just the kind of ex-manufacturing worker who might be able to …