Harrisonburg area gets national ranking

by Heather Hayes
for Virginia Business
July 2005

Apparently, an awful lot of jobs can be found in the Harrisonburg area. A Bureau of Labor Statistics report recently cited the Shenandoah Valley community as having the second lowest jobless rate among the nation’s metropolitan statistical areas. Harrisonburg and Rockingham County had a combined unemployment rate of 2.8 percent in March — second only to the Honolulu MSA and well below the national average of 5.2 percent.
Harrisonburg leads a pack of high-performing Virginia metropolitan areas. Charlottesville finished third in the BLS report, Winchester was fourth and Roanoke tied with three other cities for 10th place. Among the states, Virginia had a 3.3 percent jobless rate at the time of the report to tie North Dakota for third behind Hawaii and Wyoming.

Brian B. Shull, Harrisonburg’s economic development director, credits the area’s good showing to a diversified economy, strong growth at James Madison University, the city’s accessibility on Interstate 81 and its status as a retail hub for eight counties.

The good economic news is drawing attention. Shull notes that since the city and county were combined into a MSA after the 2000 census, Harrisonburg has been popping up on a number of site selector lists as an excellent place to live and work. As a result, workers and retirees are moving in. Shull adds that JMU graduates increasingly want to remain in the area. They are encouraged in part by the city’s push to bring in more technology-based companies, especially those specializing in information security and health informatics. “We’re getting a very nice mix of people here,” Shull says.