Although Southside Virginia continues to chart the state's highest
unemployment, the Virginia Employment Commission's chief economist sees
a window of opportunity opening for the region.
VEC's William Mezger said the Halifax County unemployment rate is the
sixth highest in the state, while the Mecklenburg County rate is eighth
highest.
But statistics don't tell the whole story.
Mezger said high-rent locations such as Raleigh/Durham and Greensboro,
N.C., may be losing technology firms. And the big winners could be
places like Halifax and Mecklenburg counties in Virginia.
Mezger observed that technology companies want to be near - that is
within 100 miles - of an established technology center such as Northern
Virginia or Research Triangle Park, but they don't want to be in "the
high rent district."
"The metropolitan areas of Northern Virginia are still doing great, and
everything within 100 miles gets pulled along, including Richmond, and
parts of the Eastern Shore, Winchester and even Harrisonburg," Mezger
said.
Spinoff from Virginia's neighbor to the south is probably the cause of
growth he's beginning to see in both Halifax and Mecklenburg counties.
"Distribution firms have located in South Boston during the last decade
because they can easily get to Route 360 and are fairly close to
Charlotte and Greensboro. They probably will [do that] more because of
their location," he said.
"Danville, Martinsville, South Boston and Mecklenburg County seem to be
getting some spinoff from the Raleigh-Durham area," he said. "They have
a situation similar to Northern Virginia where a lot of high-tech firms
want to be near Northern Virginia but don't want to pay the high rents
of the D.C. area."
Mezger said the Halifax County unemployment rate in August 2007 was 6.3
percent, down a shade from 6.5 in July, but higher than the August 2006
rate of 5.7 percent.
He said layoffs earlier in the year continued to affect the August
employment picture in Halifax.  August improved over July this year
because workers who had been on traditional furloughs in industries
such as textiles have returned to their jobs, he said.
Next door in Mecklenburg County the unemployment rate in August 2007
rose to 5.8 percent from 5.00 percent in July and was higher than the
August 2006 rate of 5.2 percent.
"It was up a little in July and August and slightly higher than last
year, but I suspect the cause was temporary furloughs from traditional
industries," Mezger said.
The national unemployment rate in August 2007 was 4.6 percent, while
the statewide Virginia rate was 3.1 percent, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
"Southside no doubt is the worst area in the state, especially
Southside from Emporia west to Galax. The area is still very much tied
to textiles, apparel and furniture manufacturing where the declines
have been," Mezger said.
  "The state is divided by I-64," he said. "Most everything above is
growing, below it is not, with a couple of exceptions, mainly in the
New River Valley. Virginia Tech and Radford University keep that area
growing, and some technology has come along."
Mezger cautioned that while technology firms generate high-paying jobs,
they are not a magic bullet for erasing all economic woes.
He noted that Martinsville, which suffered huge employment losses
around 2000 due to plant closings, has attracted some new companies
such as one that does NASCAR research. But that firm employs about 50
people, he said, compared with a textile mill that employs about 1,000.