Participant Guide: Economy


The Envision Participant Guide provides an in-depth exploration of the opportunities and challenges which may shape the future of Prince George’s County.

In today’s excerpt, we take a look at the Economy:

Large public sector economy

Today Prince George’s economy is dominated by a large public sector (federal, state, and local governments), accounting for about 28 percent of jobs in the county. Other sectors with relatively higher concentrations of employment are construction, retail trade, health care, and social assistance.

Not enough jobs

Jobs have not kept pace with population growth. Only 40 percent of county residents work in the county, compared to 69 percent of Montgomery County residents working in their county and 54 percent of Fairfax County residents working in their county. In the1990s, job growth in the western parts of the region outpaced job growth in Prince George’s and eastern parts of the region by 20 to 1. That disparity has slowed to just under 3 to 1, but the impact remains: Prince George’s County has far fewer jobs per number of residents inside its borders than other counties. From 2000 to 2007, consistent with employment in most other parts of the country, the unemployment rate increased. In Prince George’s County the increase was from 4.1 percent to 7.4 percent.

For much more background on our county, please download and review the Envision Participant Guide (note: This is a large 2MB PDF file), and look for many more Participant Guide excerpts here at the Envision blog.



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