Moving the numbers, aiding public

It was a coincidence that the monthly unemployment numbers and the annual poverty rate estimate both came out around the same time this week. The business of monitoring the business of this community never ends.

The Dan River Region saw a slight decrease in joblessness, signaling the addition of about 300 jobs. That could be just a blip — or a sign that the national economy is starting to recover.

But the Census Bureau’s annual poverty report that showed a slight increase hasn’t fully measured the effects of the current recession.

We could see unemployment start to drop over the next year or two as the trailing indicator of community poverty continues to rise. Such is the world reflected through the cold, hard statistics of community measurements.

The advantage of having both numbers released at the same time is the jolting reminder that the Dan River Region still has a long way to go despite five solid years of progress attracting new businesses and industries.

“Every day the Office of Economic Development has come to work with the grit and determination that we will do everything we can to bring new jobs and investment to the area,” Jeremy Stratton, director of Danville’s Office of Economic Development, said in an e-mail. “It is a tall order, but we have the leadership and team in place to make a positive impact.”

It takes a long time to turn a community around. Just 10 years ago, a lot of local people still thought Dan River Inc. and the community’s tobacco growing, selling and warehousing jobs would survive. Five years ago, the city and county started to see the first results of their joint economic development program.

Did anyone expect that things here would turn around on a dime?

Next year, the Census Bureau’s official measures of population, poverty and other community statistics will officially document one of the worst decades in this region’s history. The past 10 years will be remembered for the loss of tobacco and textile jobs bookended by two recessions.

Moving forward, the only logical thing to do is to continue attracting new businesses and industries to the Dan River Region. The White Mill project is only the latest big investment in this community that promises to bring in new jobs.

Those economic development projects have attracted a lot of different kinds of jobs in a lot of different kinds of industries. That won’t help the people who are today living in poverty, but it’s the foundation for the kind of economy — and community — we really want to have.