Virginia’s economy is strong.
That was the overall theme of the remarks made by Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones at a Prince William Chamber of Commerce event in Manassas yesterday.
According to Jones, Virginia’s unemployment rate is at 3.9% – the lowest it’s been since 2008 – and that the state currently has 3.9 million jobs. 140,000 of those jobs have been created since 2014, and 90% of those jobs have been in the private sector, stated Jones.
Jones also said that more than $11 billion in capital investment has entered Virginia in the past two years. But that’s not to say that Virginia is without its economic challenges.
“That’s not to say that we don’t have challenges. If you look at Virginia’s economy, we have structurally two great challenges that we constantly have to work on: one…we have an incredible reliance on the federal government for our job growth…the other problem to be solved, that we have to keep working on, is a lack of balance in where growth is coming,” said Jones.
Growth sectors in Virginia’s economy
Of the many industries that make up Virginia’s economy, Jones specifically discussed the growth behind the state’s tourism and manufacturing industries.
“We’ve been focusing on trying to attract firms in sectors that are growing and paying high wages,” said Jones.
During his comments, Jones stated that Canada was Virginia’s largest source of global tourism. In 2015, Canada sent more than 600,000 individuals to Virginia for tourism, and spent $214 million, said Jones.
Aside from tourism, advanced manufacturing is another area where Virginia will need to continue to grow.
“Because of the fusion of a manufacturing base in Virginia, and a technology worker, Virginia is one of the best places on the East Coast for new manufacturing jobs,” said Jones.
For recent successes in manufacturing, Jones pointed to Chinese paper company Tranlin, which will be opening a $2 billion plant in Chesterfield, employing American workers and buying agricultural waste from American farmers to create their paper products.
Expanding broadband access
One of the big pushes that Virginia is making is to improve the state’s infrastructure, and by infrastructure, they don’t just mean roads.
“We are making significant investments in roads all across the state, particularly in Northern Virginia. But in addition to the roads piece, broadband is a huge challenge for Virginia – across the state,” said Jones.
According to Hones, in some rural parts of Virginia, 35 to 55% of the population does not have access to high-speed broadband Internet, and that’s hurting economic growth.
“In the twelfth wealthiest state in the nation, in the wealthiest country in the world, we still have significant swaths of rural populations…that don’t have access to broadband. Broadband is to economic growth, what oxygen is to life and living. If you don’t have it you can’t attract businesses, you can’t build indigenous businesses, and the ones that you do have will be looking to go,” said Jones.
Branding Virginia as a ‘place for entrepreneurs’
In order to combat some of the reliance that the state has on federal government dollars to provide jobs to Virginia workers, the state has been working on promoting private sector business. One of the challenges, according to Jones, is that Virginia isn’t perceived to be ‘the place’ for entrepreneurs to start their business.
“We haven’t branded ourselves as well as some places with respect to entrepreneurism. So when you think of entrepreneurism in the U.S. you think of Silicon Valley, you think of Boston, you think of Austin, Texas. But honestly? Virginia has just as much in the way of talent as any of those places,” said Jones.
To foster more entrepreneurism in Virginia, the state has been investing in accelerators and incubators for small business growth, said Jones. There are several in Prince William County, including Innovation Park, the Science Accelerator, and the Virginia Serious Game Institute at George Mason University’s Science and Technology Campus.
The talent ‘gap’
In addition to expanding broadband access, Virginia will need to foster and train a workforce with talent in technical trades in order to secure additional jobs in the future.
“If you have talent that’s prepared to do the work that is needed, the jobs will come…no amount of money will make up for a lack of talent,” Jones said.
Jones said that projections show 1.5 million jobs opening up in Virginia in the next 10 years. 1 million will be the result of retirements or individuals leaving the state, and 500,000 jobs will be from the creation of new positions.
What’s telling is that of those 500,000 new jobs, 50 to 65% will not require a college degree, according to Jones. The jobs will be in technical trades that require licensing, apprenticeships, and certifications.
“As a welder, as a mechanic, as a machinist, as a coder, as a truck driver – trades in technical skill sets – that is the big opportunity for us. It is also our big vulnerability. If we don’t get a sufficient quantities of these folks prepared, and prepared quickly, we’re going to lose existing jobs – much less not being able to attract new jobs,” said Jones.
To create a pipeline to train technical workers, the Virginia General Assembly has created a pool of $20 million for the community college system in Virginia to get people certified in technical trades, according to Jones.
“The way this will work – it’s a pay-for-performance. The student will put up one-third of [the] cost for the course, we have a fund of money – that $20 million – and the university, or community college in this case, will put up the other two-thirds. The community college, through that fund, will get paid back a third of the two-thirds that it put up when the student completes the coursework. And then, the other third, when the student actually gets the certification,” said Jones.
The funding would allow students to get their certifications at a reduced cost, and while the community colleges would upfront the remaining cost for the coursework, the pool of funding would reimburse the schools and incentivizes success for the school and the student.
