|
Virginians are
rich and smart
But at research,
the Old Dominion is an also-ran
by
Peter Galuszka
How
does Virginia compare with its sister states included
in the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve System?
Not too badly. Overall, the Old Dominion seems to be
richer and better educated than most of her sister states,
despite some notable misfires. That’s the overall
conclusion as Virginia Business publishes its third
annual “State of the State” survey. Since
this month’s cover story explores the Federal Reserve
Bank of Richmond, it seems appropriate that we tailor
this year’s “State of the State” project
to compare Virginia and its largest urban areas with
her sister states in the Fifth Fed District, including
West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Maryland and
the District of Columbia. As we have in the past three
years, Virginia Business contracted for the data with
Chmura Economics & Analytics, a Richmond econometric
forecasting firm.
A
warning, however. What tends to pull Virginia’s
data up is Northern Virginia, which we could not separate
from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Statistical
Area (MSA). So, there’s a chance that some twin-income
professional families boasting of at least a pair of
master’s degrees and working for the federal government,
law firms or technology companies in affluent, Montgomery
County, Md., might somehow be seen as representing equally
affluent and well-educated Fairfax County.
According
to the Chmura data, Virginians have more high school
diplomas than other Fifth District areas, although residents
of Maryland and the Washington MSA have more bachelor’s
degrees or better. The bias toward D.C. shows up in
per capita income, too. The Washington MSA by far has
the biggest per capita income, $40,046. Next
on the list is Raleigh-Durham, home of several fine
universities and the Research Triangle, with $32,537;
Baltimore, a heavily unionized, Northern-style city,
with $32,265; and Richmond, coming up close behind,
with $31,292. In this category, Richmond beats out Charlotte,
which has emerged as the nation’s No. 2 banking
center and is growing at a pace that makes Richmond
seem sleepy.
Virginia
likewise fares well in unemployment rates, an important
indicator since the economy continues to sputter. Charlottesville
had the lowest of the regions in the pack, at 2.4 percent,
followed by Roanoke, at 3.4 percent. Boosted by federal
spending, the Washington area’s jobless rate was
only 3.5 percent and the other two large metro areas
in Virginia — Richmond and Hampton Roads —
tallied a respectable 4.3 percent.
The
lesson here is that despite the sputtering economic
recovery, Virginia’s major urban areas are diverse
enough and service-oriented enough to weather bad times.
A big spate of new defense spending in all of these
areas, including Roanoke, is helping, as well. The more
one heads south into manufacturing and farm areas, the
worse the economy gets. Charlotte, for example, weighed
in at a 5.6 percent jobless rate because of its heavy
reliance on textile and other manufacturing plants.
Danville, which has taken huge hits as apparel firms
move across the border and tobacco falters, brings up
the rear with an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent. The
Chmura data doesn’t cover this, but in far Southwestern
Virginia some moribund coalfield areas such as Dickenson
County have jobless rates better than 10 percent.
Where’s
the Achilles’ heel for the Old Dominion? Surprisingly,
research and development. Virginia is only No. 3, behind
Maryland and North Carolina, in the number of patents
recorded. Embarrassingly, in 1999, Virginia’s total
number of 778 patents was 161 short of those registered
in the Raleigh-Durham area alone. How come? The Research
Triangle and three world-class universities. Virginia
has nothing like it in one concentrated spot. Despite
the aspirations of schools like Virginia Tech to become
research powerhouses, they have a long way to go to
approach the Tar Heel and Terrapin states. With severe
budget cuts in Virginia’s higher education, it’s
going to be even harder to catch up.
Return
to Virginia Business - February 2003
|
|
