The Minister of Development touts growth in employment, gross domestic product, and capital investment

Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael gave lawmakers a rundown of positive signs for West Virginia’s economy, including job gains, steady improvement in gross domestic product and millions of dollars in corporate investment.

“If we highlight the many accomplishments that are happening, people will start to feel that momentum,” Carmichael told members of the Joint Standing Committee on Economic Development and Tourism during a subcommittee meeting Sunday afternoon.

His presentation was an overview of economic progress in a state that was experiencing historic difficulties.

From 2017 to 2021, West Virginia received $6.2 billion in private investment, he said. Then, according to him, the state received 6.2 billion dollars in 2022 alone. “We’ve done more in one year than in previous years,” Carmichael said.

Employment growth has also picked up, although Carmichael acknowledged that it started when the bottom fell out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, he said, West Virginia’s economy has grown by 125,000 jobs over the past 38 months.

“Now somebody would say, because it’s been measured since April 2020, the numbers are at the bottom of the pandemic – but yet look at the amount of growth we’ve had in that time frame,” he said. “This is a wage-earning family. It’s someone going to work.”

West Virginia’s unemployment rate is only about 3.4 percent, continuing a long downward trend.

West Virginia’s gross domestic product has been growing steadily for the past couple of years.

Carmichael said that in 2022, the average salary increased by 7 and a half percent.

“So why is West Virginia succeeding so much, at this rate? What value do we offer to the world?” Carmichael asked. “This is the sales initiative we’re bringing to corporate America, and it’s incredibly compelling.”

First, it is a central location, just a day’s drive from key places in the region. Another factor is the low cost of doing business, including workers’ compensation rates. Another attribute is energy resources.

“It’s fun to win,” Carmichael said, “and we’re winning, you’re winning, state is winning, and we just want to continue the momentum we’ve built. I think that the future of our state is very bright.”

A MetroNews poll in West Virginia found that, overall, many residents believe the state’s economy is deteriorating.

According to the latest version of the survey, 44% of respondents believe that the economy of the state is deteriorating.

About 37 percent of the respondents described the economy of the state in about the same way.

Only 19 percent say the economy is improving.

“First of all, I think the state’s economy is better, not worse, unlike the survey results,” said John Deskins, director of West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business Economic Research.

Deskins was responding via email to the results of the economic opinion poll, not specifically to Carmichael’s presentation to lawmakers.

“One factor that could affect the survey results is that many areas in West Virginia are not growing at all. The growth we are seeing is concentrated in a few counties. This can definitely skew the results of the poll, as I believe people tend to look at their own community rather than the entire state.”

The biggest challenge facing the state in the near term is the national economy, Deskins said.

“Remember, a year ago we were at the center of very high uncertainty in the country. Inflation was the highest it had been in 40 years and the Fed was in the midst of an incredibly aggressive rate hike campaign. This situation has increased the probability of a recession to probably 50-50. And it would certainly have a big impact on West Virginia, not just the nation,” he said.

“But now, going forward a year, we seemed to have handled the rate hike pretty well, and inflation has come down a lot. We’re not out of the woods yet, inflation still isn’t where we want it to be, and we certainly haven’t felt the impact of all the rate hikes. But we are a lot BETTER than we were a year ago. That’s true across the country and in West Virginia.”

The near-term economic future, Deskins suggested, is partly sunny with few clouds.

“The main problem I see going forward is that we’re going to see very slow growth for the state and the nation in the next couple of years,” he said. “Slow growth, but not decline.”