CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — As West Virginia’s economy seeks stronger growth, the state’s business community faces the challenge of finding an educated and qualified workforce.

But as West Virginia’s population decreases year over year, it becomes increasingly difficult to find employees for the industries of the future. This cycle further perpetuates the state’s population decline.

“If we had more workers in the right places in West Virginia, our companies would be able to produce more, sell more, create more,” said West Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Steve Roberts.

In order to spur on a future that includes a higher rate of educated and qualified applicants, Roberts said he and other economic development officials have partnered with the state’s educators.

“We are working with the K-12 education system, the community and technical education system and with our four-year colleges and universities to try to help them know what jobs our students need to be trained for,” he said.

This is what West Virginia University economist John Deskins “preach(es) about all the time,” the economist said.

“We just don’t have an attractive workforce in terms of a large number of people who are healthy, educated, prepared for the workforce and drug free. I’m not surprised that (Roberts) would think that this would be the biggest challenge they face, because I completely agree with that,” Deskins said.

This challenge has been exacerbated by the rise of artificial intelligence programs that are becoming more capable of many roles.

“The AI revolution is very much underway,” Roberts said, before noting “AI will be changing things.”

Over the last 10 years, there has been a decrease in the number of jobs in the mining, manufacturing and tourism sectors — “staple industries in West Virginia,” Roberts called them.

West Virginia has done well by creating job opportunities in the health care field. But there remains a great demand for these roles as there have not been enough people educated to fill them, Robert said.

Rather than focus on the sectors that have diminished, Roberts said West Virginia officials need to “focus on the future, bringing back our population (and) bringing a more skilled level of worker into the workplace.”

“We want to see people have opportunities in the industries of the future,” he said.

Roberts said he’s hopeful that this change will come, but noted it likely won’t happen anytime soon.

“We think that’s the transition that’s underway in the overall economy. It’s just going to take time to get here,” Roberts said.

In addition to a shrinking job market in major industries, West Virginia also has lost about 80,000 people over the last 10 years. Roberts said this is mainly due to West Virginia having an aging population. But these losses have not been replenished with young working people.

The key to reversing population loss, according to Roberts, lies in strengthening the economy and creating jobs.

When asked about specific sectors where job growth could attract new residents, Roberts was quick to say home building, a sector that could potentially kill two birds with one stone.

“Home building has some element of a chicken and egg problem,” Deskins said. “People won’t move to certain areas because there’s not decent housing. But developers aren’t building houses there because there doesn’t seem to be much of a demand.”

And, home builders need to be thoughtful about the cost of the housing they build in West Virginia.

“It has to be housing that meets the needs of the people you’re trying to attract,” Deskins said. “If we’re building houses in the $200,000 to $400,000 range, that would have a much broader appeal … than houses in the $700,000 to $800,000 range.