Thursday, September 02, 2004
Your job probably doesn't pay much
Annual wages in the Roanoke Valley not close to Virginia average
The latest from The Ticker blog
jenny.kincaid@roanoke.com 981-3235
Laying bricks won't make you a millionaire. But you'll probably earn more as a brickmason in the Roanoke Valley than as a school social worker.
Employment and wage data from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the average wages of occupations in the Roanoke Valley as of May 2003.
Brickmasons and blockmasons made an average of $40,030 annually in Roanoke in 2003. Child, family and school social workers made $31,830 annually.
Disregard health care, the highest-paying industry locally, and Roanoke lacks a large number of higher-paying jobs, economists say.
The average annual wage in Roanoke City remained nearly the same from 2002 to 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was $32,143 in 2002 in Roanoke City, compared to $32,418 in 2003. In Roanoke County, the average annual wage dropped from $30,177 in 2002 to $29,357 in 2003.
Virginia's annual average wage was $38,567 in 2003 and $37,222 in 2002.
Roanoke's low cost of living is one factor in the area's lower wages and slow wage growth compared to the state average, economists said.
But there are other reasons for the gap, they said.
Roanoke lacks many jobs in technical and scientific services, squeezing the valley's ability to produce high-paying jobs, said Chris Chmura, chief economist with Chmura Economics and Analytics in Richmond.
The average annual pay for professional, scientific and technical services in Roanoke, which include architects, lawyers and research-and-development firms, was about $43,400 in 2003, compared to approximately $67,000 statewide, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, cited by Chmura.
"It indicates that the mix of industries is not as favorable" in Roanoke, Chmura said.
Phil Sparks, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, said his organization is pleased with the jobs that have been announced and expansions at companies across the Roanoke Valley. He said 1,000 new jobs were announced in 2003, with average salaries of $27,733.
His organization's goal is to attract jobs that pay on average $29,566 a year.
"We couldn't possibly bring in lower-paying jobs," added Anne Piedmont, director of research and communications at the partnership. "They wouldn't be filled."
But the decline of the manufacturing sector, coupled with bank mergers and companies that have moved their corporate headquarters out of Roanoke, such as Norfolk Southern, have depleted Roanoke of higher-paying jobs, said Bill Mezger, chief economist with the Virginia Employment Commission.
These changes have transformed the nature of Roanoke's job market, producing a greater concentration of production-line employment, Mezger said.
"Roanoke tends to be a more blue-collar area, than a white-collar area," he said. "That generally doesn't have high salaries across the board."
One sector in the Roanoke Valley that pays well is health care. Those jobs are among the highest paid occupations in the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They include dentists, who earn $181,080 annually on average; pharmacists, who make $70,260; and pediatricians, who earn $155,920.
The average annual wage for the health care industry in the Roanoke Valley was higher in 2003 than the state average, which is $35,325, Chmura said, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2003, health care workers in Roanoke earned on average $37,697 annually.
James Black, pharmacist and manager at Carilion Medical Center Pharmacy in Roanoke, said the desire to help people, work flexibility and high pay are among the attractive features of the profession.
A shortage of pharmacists has led to higher salaries in some areas of the state, Black said.
"When I first got out of school, it was a fairly well paying job, with job potential," Black said. "That hasn't changed. The pay has gone up just like everyone else's pay."
Rising demand for health care nationally is driving growth of health care jobs, economists said. Carilion Health System's two Roanoke hospitals employ 4,805 people. Carilion employs more than 9,000 people systemwide.
"We reflect the baby boomer generation," said Robert Denton, a professor of political communication at Virginia Tech.
The elderly populations are driving the demand for more specialized health care services, he said.
Other high-paying professions in the Roanoke MSA include computer software engineers, $76,540; lawyers, $99,050; personal financial advisers, $79,110; and public relations managers, $78,800, based on BLS data.
Occupations that earn lower annual wages include child care workers, $16,220; travel agents, $18,400; bank tellers, $20,930; and bakers, $19,560, according to the data.
Inflation has not had a large impact on wages for the last several years but that is changing as gas prices have risen in the last few months, Mezger said. According to the Consumer Price Index, inflation rose 3.2 percent from 2002 to 2003 in Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland and West Virginia. The CPI is a measure of the average change of prices over time for consumer goods and services.
Some economists say the CPI is not an accurate measure for Roanoke because it includes Northern Virginia localities, which are different economically from Roanoke.
Denton said it seems that wages are not keeping up with inflation.
"Even those of us with the good life, we went three years without a raise," he said. "It is hard for us to feel confident at this time because the stock market is volatile. We still see high gas prices and in the wake of very modest, if any, raises."
A Virginia Economic Trends report by Chmura's firm forecasts that wages and salaries in Roanoke will grow 2.7 percent in 2004 and 4.1 percent in 2005. It is the smallest forecast of growth among Virginia's metro areas, the report states.
"What happens in Roanoke will depend on the industries that you currently have there, as well as the industries that are attracted to relocate in your region," Chmura said.
Denton said Roanoke needs a plan for attracting particular industries.
"I think Roanoke is not doing enough targeting certain industries, making certain funds available for recruitment," he said. "I think Roanoke has not made up its mind what it wants to be within five or 10 years. Is it tourism? What will they do with downtown? Roanoke needs to make some very specific strategic decisions."
Sparks, however, said the partnership does have strategic plans to target job growth in four industries in Roanoke. These are companies that manufacture biomedical devices, highly automated manufacturing firms, microelectronics and electro/optic businesses and companies that manufacture automotive parts.
Several companies that fit this description locally are Johnson & Johnson, ITT Night Vision, R.R. Donnelley & Sons and Yokohama, he said.
