By Stephen Smoot
Last month, the United States Census Bureau released the 2023 set of County Business Patterns Data. According to the Census Bureau, this represents “an annual series that provides subnational economic data for establishments with paid employees by industry and employment size. The Census Bureau usually releases a year’s data approximately 18 months after the end of the year. Data can be accessed by nation, state, county, zip code, congressional district, or, in the cases of more populated counties, sections of them.
Data availability does come with limits. The United States Department of Agriculture, for example, collects and disseminates economic data on farming operations. Though CBPD does include the agriculture sector, it does not go into much detail on that.
Additionally, CPBD does not release information in a data point when that could be used to identify individual companies. With that data available, competitors could discern proprietary information from that company’s operations. This would eliminate the incentive for such companies to comply with Census surveys.
Data released from 2023 can give a more clear picture of an area’s rebound from the economic ravages of the COVID pandemic.
Throughout West Virginia, the number of businesses marked by the survey increased from 2020. Numbers expanded slowly from 35,323 to 35,839., about one and a half percent. Locally, those numbers rose in the same time frame from 1,766 to 1,781, also reflecting approximately one percent growth.
Harrison County saw its annual payroll grow in the three year span from $1,394,298,000 to $1,687,295,000. This happened as the officially tabulated number of employees dropped from 29,577 to 29,386.
With both the state and Harrison County dependent on extraction and energy, numbers from the “mining, quarrying, oil and gas” categories carry significant meaning. Throughout the state, the number of establishments dipped from 482 to 438.
Those numbers do not tell the story, however. The drop in the number of such businesses was greatest among those with five or less. They dropped from 206 to 175. The number of West Virginia businesses in these fields with 500 or more employees rose from seven to 10 during that time frame.
Harrison County saw no change in the number of establishments, standing pat at 41. Those businesses located in Harrison County combined saw employment numbers rise from 1,028 to 1,076, but the annual payroll in that economic sector skyrocketed from $75,333,000 to $116,944,000, approximately 45 percent.
Such a steep rise in pay in extractive industries will cause cost and price spikes downstream as well. Construction saw an increase in the number of firms in West Virginia, rising from 2,996 in 2020 to 3,149 in 2023. Expansion came in most of the tiers, with the highest increases coming in the “less than five” and “five to nine” categories. The number of construction businesses with 50 to 99 employees rose from 47 to 56 as well.
Harrison Country saw the number of construction firms drop from 151 to 142, but the number of people working for these companies expanded from 1,790 to 1,943. Annual payroll rose from $114,582,000 to $139,899,000.
Manufacturing has seen a rebound in West Virginia over the past two decades, with highlights such as Proctor and Gamble near Martinsburg and Nucor in Mason County. Statewide numbers appear concerning in the three year period, with the number of establishments dropping from 1,071 to 1,060 between 2020 and 2023. That said, the largest drop came in businesses with less than five employees, going from 351 to 325.
The state added three manufacturing companies in the time frame that employed between 250 and 499. Harrison County added three manufacturing firms from 2020 to 2023, going from 37 to 40. Employment rose from 1,340 to 1,487 with the annual payroll jumping from $82,528,000 to $101,310,000, approximately a 20 percent rise.
West Virginia University’s Economic Outlook for 2022 to 2026 shared that the state’s employment numbers bounced back fairly quickly. The Mountain State lost 94,000 jobs in March and April 2020 and saw 16 percent unemployment, but gained 96 percent of those numbers back by late-summer 2021.
