Base jobs fuel Harford, but it's no Howard County
As Lorraine Mirabella reports in today's paper, thousands of realigned defense jobs aimed at Aberdeen Proving Ground are prompting something unusual for the 2009 economy: Not just office-building construction, but in some cases office-building construction without any tenants signed up.
"In this economy, I cannot tell you anyplace else in the nation where this is going on right now," James Richardson, head of Harford County economic devlopment, told Mirabella. The activity seems to show up in Harford's vital statistics. The county's September unemployment rate of 7.1 percent is below the overall metro Baltimore rate of 7.6 percent.
But Harford unemployment is still greater than Anne Arundel’s, which is 6.5 percent. And it’s miles above Howard County’s, which is 5.4 percent. Base realignment notwithstanding, the closer you get to the money fountain called Washington, the fewer jobless people there are. (Montgomery County unemployment for September was 5.3 percent.) The pattern doesn't hold everywhere. As you can see Prince George's unemployment is 7.5 percent. 
Comments
Not to say that the unemployment numbers will change much once BRAC actually moves the majority of the workers to Harford County - but seeing that none of these talked about office projects are completed and occuied yet, would it not be expected that the unemployment rate would still possibly be high?
Posted by: BB | November 10, 2009 9:33 AM