High-paying jobs are still coming to Prince William County, but not at the record pace of 2005.
Five new targeted businesses, which all offer jobs with average salaries of $60,000 or more, brought 153 jobs to the county between January and March of this year, according to the Prince William Department of Economic Development’s quarterly report. In the same period last year, six businesses brought 185 jobs.
“We added less, but we still added, so it still is growth,” said Jason Grant, a Department of Economic Development spokesman.
Total new jobs in the county increased during this year’s first quarter. Including retail, nonretail and commercial businesses, 528 jobs were announced for Prince William, compared with 466 in January-March 2005.
The county’s vacancy rates for industrial and light industrial space dropped from 2.8 percent to 1.5 percent and from 12.2 percent to 7.5 percent, respectively. Vacancy rates for office space increased slightly to 3.3 percent from 3.1 percent.
There is a lot of office space being built, said Sean Connaughton, Prince William Board of County Supervisors chair.
“The more space we can provide, the more jobs we’ll actually be able to attract in the county,” Connaughton said.
“They are the new guys on the block, but they are still not attracting the big space uses. It is going to be a while before they mature,” said Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.
Developers are beginning to slow construction to avoid having an empty building in the future, Fuller said.
