Prince William County, Va. - Between October and December 2009, Prince William County saw the creation of 524 jobs, ac-cording to recent figures presented the board of supervisors.
"It's been slower growth than we've been used to," Economic Devel-opment Director Martin Briley said at last week's quarterly update to supervisors. "But 524 new jobs … it's a good trend."
Of those 524 jobs, 332 (63 percent) are in the non-retail sector. For retail, the months between 2008 and 2009 have not been kind in terms of job creation. Between January and December 2008, 1,513 retail jobs came to the county. For that same time period in 2009, job creation for this category had dropped to 646.
"Retail took a substantial hit," Briley said.
At the same time, the unemployment rate locally has remained low in comparison to national figures. At the end of the fourth quarter 2009, the county's rate was 5.2 percent, Briley said, describing Prince William as "faring quite well." That compares to 9.7 percent for the same quarter nationwide.
Job creation in the professional and technical services category is "gradually increas-ing," Briley said, adding that the county grew these positions by 9 percent at the end of 2008, which was the highest in the state.
The bulk of job losses have come from the construction industry, followed by the related real estate field, he said.
"Almost all [losses] are due to construction, which has had multiple effects throughout the county," Briley said. "Real estate … started to flatten out over the last three quarters. There was a big drop in '08 to '09, first quarter to first quarter.
It flattened out in the second quarter. And you can see a little stability in the third quar-ter."
Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.
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