City job figures strong
Remain ahead of state, nation
BY ALEX LANG The Dominion Post
The employment rate for the Morgantown Statistical Area remains among the top in the state and well ahead of the national rate despite a nearly 10-percent drop in manufacturing jobs. Over the past year, the area has seen continued growth in hospitality and government jobs. Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Morgantown saw a dramatic drop in the number of people employed in manufacturing jobs since July 2008. Those jobs have decreased 9.5 percent, with 3,800 now employed. The Morgantown Statistical Area encompasses Monongalia and Preston counties. “That is a large drop,” said George Hammond, associate director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at WVU. The decrease in Morgantown was not as great as that across the state. West Virginia lost 11.5 percent of its manufacturing jobs since July 2008, according to the bureau. Hammond said most of the loss was due to a decrease in mining and energy related jobs. Even with the decrease, Morgantown has seen an increase of .3 percent in nonfarm employment over the past year, according to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the state has seen a 3.6 percent drop in that category. Hammond said that the change in employment numbers in the area has begun to slow down. The region saw an increase in the unemployment rate every month from February to July. The July unemployment rate is at 6.4 percent, according to the bureau. According to Work Force West Virginia numbers released Friday, the August 2009 unemployment rate in Monongalia County is at 5 percent, the lowest in the state. However, it’s up from 4.4 percent in July. Preston County’s unemployment rate is 7.4 percent, down from 8 percent in July, according to Work Force West Virginia. The state unemployment rate is 8.9 percent; nationally the rate is 9.7 percent. Morgantown has been able to keep its low unemployment rate because of more hospitality and government jobs, Hammond said. Hospitality has seen a 7.9 percent growth over the past year and government jobs saw a 2.5 percent increase, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hospitality jobs include restaurants, hotels and tourism-related jobs, Hammond said. For the state to see its employment numbers improve, Hammond said the demand for energy must increase as West Virginia’s economy is heavily based on coal. Energy demand remained high throughout 2008, which helped the state stay out of the deep recession, he said. However, demand has decreased, as evidenced by CONSOL’s recent shut down of its longwall mine at Blacksville No. 2. Because of a decrease in demand, CONSOL idled its longwall miner at Blacksville No. 2 from early June to mid-August. Longwall mining includes the removal of large rectangular blocks of coal from a mine, then allows the roof in the mined area to collapse, according to an Energy Information Agency report on longwall mining.