Description

4th Quarter 2005 Report
The national economy continues to grow at a solid pace despite two hurricanes that devastated parts of the Gulf Coast economy and pushed oil prices to record highs.
Growth at the state level, however, has dropped below the national average with employment advancing 1.2% in Virginia compared with 1.6% in the nation for the year ending with September 2005. With defense and security spending apparently slowing, Virginia is now the 28th fastest
growing state in the nation.

Defense and high-tech occupations are often touted at the expense of technical trades. However, technical trade occupations are key in supporting industries in
manufacturing, construction, and repair and maintenance services. While each of these industries has had recent employment declines, each is still important in the
future economy. This is particularly true in areas such as Western Virginia Workforce Investment Area (WIA) 3—the topic of the feature article—where
manufacturing firms employ nearly 13% of the workforce.