Opinion
Marion County faring quite well in weathering economic storm
How would you like to live in a location where unemployment is second lowest in the entire state?
Out of 55 counties, no less?
Well, if you should happen to call Marion County home, you are doing just that. Statistics reveal that despite the current economic conditions, our county’s labor market remains strong and is second only to Monongalia County in the entire state.
True, our unemployment rate is at 6 percent. And that’s a little high. But when you measure that with the state average, which is 8.5 percent, or the national average at 9.1 percent, our figure looks to be very good.
In fact, our figure could be called huge. And the statistics are probably a major surprise to those people living here. There have been periods 20 and 30 years ago, and no doubt even before that, when the unemployment rate here stood at 8 and 9 percent. In May, West Virginia’s unemployment rate climbed six-tenths of a percentage point to 8.5, according to statistics compiled by WorkForce West Virginia. The number of unemployed state residents rose 4,900 to 67,700. Total unemployment was up 33,800 over the year.
Our unemployment rate was 3.5 percent last May, when things were going good, but every county in the state faced an unemployment gain.
High-tech jobs, higher education, health care. This is our job base now. Coal mining and factory jobs no longer dominate the job base. Many of our mines have closed, and the factory jobs are about nil. Things have really changed here over the past decade or so.
With Monongalia, Marion and Harrison counties all ranked in the Top Three, being in the midst of the High Tech Corridor is really paying off.
There’s no question that having 33,800 more people out of jobs statewide than were working last year is challenging. But to rank No. 2 in the state in unemployment is something we have not seen in our lifetime. Marion County ranks second only to Monongalia County’s 4.7 figure. Harrison and Kanawha counties are tied for third place, with Putnam and Mercer in a fourth-place deadlock at 7.0.
“I think that we have a lot of projects that are currently going on and are slated to happen in Marion County, and I think this community has worked very hard to create opportunities in order to advance our economic environment,” Tina Shaw, president of the Marion County Chamber of Commerce, said. “We see nothing but growth in our future.”
County Commission president Randy Elliott said Marion County “has experienced setbacks, like the closing of Philips Lighting Co., but every county deals with those devastations.” He says Marion County more than makes up for its losses with the new things that are happening. The I-79 Corridor is booming and exploding with opportunities, and Marion County is strategically located in the center of that activity. People are seeing the county as an attractive location, he said.
There are those in our midst who can see the light at the end of the current recession. Let’s hope they are right. But meanwhile, as recessions go, Marion County has never been in any better position to weather the storm than it is right now.
- Opinion
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Yes to Second Amendment, no to state sales tax holiday on gun sales
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Such is the case of The Second Amendment Appreciation Act which reserves the second weekend in October as an amnesty period during which there would be no 6 percent state sales tax on the purchase of pistols and rifles.
Don’t get us wrong. We fully believe in the right to bear arms.
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Student protestors get great civics lesson
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North Marion girls impressive in defending championship
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It was probably only a few minutes after the Huskies won the 2009 Class AAA championship in the state high school tournament in Charleston that the first fan predicted that “we’ll win it again next year.”
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Elders deserve more relief via in-home care funding
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Mine officials’ swift action may have saved lives
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Stopping mining at the operation means placing a financial burden on the miners who work there, we understand, but conditions were such that an explosion like the one that took the lives of 12 miners just four years ago in Sago was possible.
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Voters: Scrap it and rewrite it
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Area women’s basketball programs have come long way
For many years, women’s basketball just seemed to many observers to be just something for young girls and women to do prior to the “real games” being played by boys and men. It took a long time before women’s games were even covered by the media — and that includes radio and television as well as newspapers.
Fortunately, opinions have changed over the years.
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City must practice responsible fiscal policy
The employees of the City of Fairmont have a reason to celebrate.
For the first time in three years, since a water crisis crippled the city and its finances in the early months of 2007, employees will get one-time pay increases worth about $750.
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Laws needed to regulate development of resources
The Marcellus shale formations, which extend throughout the Eastern United States, remain a largely untapped reserve of natural gas. And that makes it a prime target for energy development.
But local legislators want a little regulation when it comes to the extraction of the natural resource. Drillers tap millions of gallons of water from streams and rivers so as to bore into the rock formations that trap the state’s abundant reserves of natural gas.
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Broadband access vital to state’s future
The Mountain State is receiving $126.3 million in federal stimulus funding for a proposed statewide broadband infrastructure project.
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Yes to Second Amendment, no to state sales tax holiday on gun sales
