Employment in Construction Activities—Approximately 7% of the total civilian non-agricultural employment is concerned with construction. More than three-fourths of all construction during the past decade has been for private use, approximately half of this construction involving private residences. The tremendous increase in the population of Virginia during the past twenty years has caused the rate of private residential building to be higher than that for the entire nation. Privately-owned public utility buildings, public highways and private non-residential buildings rank high in kinds of construction projects undertaken.
VIRGINIA STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
A Modern Manufacturing Plant
Employment in Finance—Finance, including bank, insurance and real estate activity, affects all geographical areas of the state but, in terms of numbers, these activities are primarily located in or near urban centers. Approximately 7% of the civilian non-agricultural employees are so engaged.
Employment in Mining Operations—Approximately 2% of the total civilian non-agricultural employees in Virginia are engaged in mining. More than 80% of Virginia's mining employment is in bituminous coal which is the chief mining product of the nation as a whole. Virginia furnishes approximately 3% of the total annual output of this product in the United States. Such mining is extremely important in Buchanan and Dickenson Counties where more than half of all the civilian employees are miners. Pocahontas, Big Stone Gap, Dante and Tazewell have huge bituminous coal mines. Stone quarrying rates second in mining employment. Crushed stone granite quarries are found in Roanoke, Richmond, Fredericksburg, Red Hill and Leesburg and crushed limestone quarries are found in Kimballton, Riverton, Leesburg, Stephens City and Buchanan. Employment in crude petroleum, natural gas and in metal mining, which accounts for one-third of the nation's total mining employment, is less than 3% of Virginia's total mining employment.
Employment in Forestry and Fisheries—Current employment in forestry and fisheries constitutes slightly less than 1% of the total civilian non-agricultural work force. Commercial fishermen far outnumber the foresters. However, as described previously, the lumber and lumber products industry, the paper and allied products industry and the furniture industry which are based upon the forestry industry have experienced great increases in their employment. Employees engaged in forest products industries now constitute one-fourth of the total employment in manufacturing. Although fishermen outnumber foresters at the present time, the number of fishermen has been decreasing. Nevertheless, the fisheries supply additional employment to processing and wholesale employees. A few localities such as Mathews, Northumberland, Lancaster, Gloucester, York and Middlesex Counties have a comparatively high percentage of their workers engaged in fisheries.
Employment in Travel Trade—The number of employees engaged in travel trade employment is unknown. Two characteristics of this type of employment should be noted: (1) in addition to full-time employees, there is an indeterminate number of part-time employees; and (2) employees engaged in travel trade are, for the most part, seasonal workers. The greatest number of such workers are found in hotels, motels and other tourist lodgings, in restaurants and cafes, in gasoline service stations and in recreational and entertainment activities. Approximately 94% of Virginia's travel trade comes to Virginia via the automobile; out-of-state tourists constitute about 70% of the travel trade in Virginia. It has been estimated that about half of these travelers are on vacations and the other half are mainly on business trips. About half of the vacationers are usually passing through Virginia on the way to or from specific destinations outside the state. The other half usually have selected Virginia as their particular destination to visit relatives or friends, to tour historical and scenic places and to enjoy the recreational attractions found here. The travel trade has increased considerably during the past few years. As a direct result of the increase, the number of hotels, motels and other lodging places in Virginia has likewise rapidly increased. Williamsburg and Virginia Beach illustrate the singular importance of travel trade in causing widespread growth in total employment in a community.