J. Damon Cain, The Register-Herald
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Economic charts and statistics for a four-county region in southern West Virginia, presented at a forum in Beckley on Wednesday, show modest improvements over the past two years for jobs and personal income.
But the plotted lines and numbers also diverge, pointing to deep, unrelenting and pervasive challenges, especially with the workforce and the dominating influence of the coal industry.
John Deskins, Director of the Bureau of Business & Economic Research at West Virginia University in Morgantown, chose a sunny tone in his annual presentation, but did not ignore dark clouds on the horizon.
“We still have reason to be positive,” he told a ballroom full of civic, business and political leaders past and present.
During prepared remarks and a slide show delivered at the New River Gorge Area Economic Outlook Conference at the Black Knight Country Club, Deskins said his five-year forecast for the economy in Raleigh, Fayette, Summers and Nicholas counties is “defined by uncertainty,” but that it should continue a two-year record of recovery from a lengthy and deep recession that preceded the recent uptick. ….