Chamber News

On Inside West Virginia Politics, Brian Dayton, Vice President of Policy & Advocacy for the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, discusses business and politics in the Mountain State.

According to the 2020 census, the Mountain State population dropped by 3.2%, the biggest decline of any state in the nation. That means nearly 60,000 people have left since the 2010 census.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April dropped a tenth of a percentage point, a vast improvement from last April’s pandemic unemployment numbers, but a sign some workers have yet to return to the workforce.

The president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce is praising the state’s recent unemployment data as a sign of an economy “roaring back” from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

West Virginia’s hotel industry, which has been battered by the pandemic, is seeing some positive changes, but it still faces some challenges ahead.

The need for the new investment was obvious to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who donned a hard hat and toured the airport to see some of its other ongoing construction projects in March. “A lot of our infrastructure is falling apart,” she told local reporters at the time.

Across the Mountain State, employers are in need of a capable workforce in virtually every industry. But in current times, finding and retaining workers has become a challenge, they say.

Gov. Jim Justice is now moving to two weeks of gym, health clubs and recreational facilities closing. The governor said to all employers, “Try in every way you can to let your people go home. Home is the key here.” West Virginia’s coronavirus precautions have come fast in the past week.

In what almost seems like an overnight phenomenon, the coronavirus has spread from its origin point in China to countries around the globe, affecting the world’s citizens, institutions and businesses, including those in the Mountain State.

State officials provided an update this afternoon on coronavirus response, while precautions were taking place all over West Virginia. “We don’t have any identified cases here, but we won’t be surprised when we find the first one,” said Cathy Slemp, the state health officer.