Hot Spring, Va. (AP)—Virginia needs to create at least 40,000 jobs per year over the next 10 years to continue moving forward economically, the State Highway Users Association was told Monday.
The new jobs, said Richard C. Holmquist, executive director of the association, will be necessary to meet the state’s current population growth pattern.
Holmquist listed three other objectives Virginia must achieve to move ahead in the next decade in his address to the association at the opening of its 32nd annual convention at the homestead.
He said the state must:
- Maintain a balanced economy, including diversity within manufacturing industries.
- Bring about “even growth” in all parts of the state—not boom conditions in some areas while other areas suffer economic decline.
- Place major emphasis on attracting “the most compatible” types of industries to the state—industries that will find Virginia conducive to good profits.
Holmquist listed six requisites for the location of industry in a given area: good government, a progressive attitude, good labor management relations, a properly educated labor supply supporting services and good plant sites.
He warned that education continues to constitute a major problem for Virginia.
“Virginia has some of the finest schools in the country, at all levels,” Holmquist told the association. “They are excellent and I’ll match them against…anywhere else.
“But there are certain areas in the state that need to be brought up to a higher standard. This hurts us not only because it’s unfair to the youth who are growing up in those communities, but because it lowers certain over-all statistical averages for the state. Plant location decision-makers do look at statewide statistics.”
Also a feature of Monday’s opening convention session was a panel discussion on “illegal freight carriage” which was moderated by J. David Brothers of Richmond.
Participants included Judge Jesse W. Dillon of the State Corporation Commission ; Charles A. Webb of the Interstate Commerce Commission; Donald P. Kipp, chairman of the Committee on Transportation Practices; and L. E. Galaspie, director of Traffic for Reynolds Metals Co.
