Henrico will open employment transition center

Henrico County has been the epicenter of an economic quake that has dropped an estimated 10,000 private-sector jobs from the Richmond region in a little more than a year.

The county is losing more than $7 million in direct annual-tax revenue from five major corporations that are shutting down or cutting back their operations -- led by the impending closure of the Qimonda computer-chip factory in eastern Henrico.

Sales-tax revenue for the first six months of this fiscal year was down by 3 percent, and real estate assessments grew at the lowest rate in at least 30 years.

But Henrico officials say they are less worried about tax revenue than the jobs lost throughout the Richmond region, regardless of where they occur.

So Henrico is leading a regional response to help people who have lost jobs, wherever they live, so their talent won't leave the area.

The Capital Region Workforce Partnership, a new regional organization operating within Henrico government, is opening an employment transition center in a former county library in Innsbrook not far from many of the corporations that have cut jobs, sought bankruptcy protection or begun the painful process of disappearing entirely.

"Our concern right now is to preserve an extremely talented labor force in the region," said Deputy County Manager George T. Drumwright Jr. "We don't want to have a brain drain. We've got to get through this storm right now."

The partnership, working closely with United Way of Greater Richmond, had an orientation session Friday morning with workers from local governments and nonprofit organizations.

Along with a small staff, they will find services for people from eight localities who have lost their jobs and need help with everything from filing for unemployment benefits to credit counseling and mental-health services.

"You talk about a Qimonda job -- a Qimonda job is a regional resident," said Henrico Finance Director John A. Vithoulkas. "When you have a job loss, it's a loss to the region."

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The center is expected to open this month or in early March.

"The employees who are getting displaced are all over the region," said Marilyn J. Blake, assistant county administrator in Hanover County, which is seeing demand for human services soar from residents who have lost jobs in Henrico and other areas. "None of us could do it by ourselves."

In many cases, the employees aren't eligible to receive the services that local governments normally provide to the jobless.

"These are not the traditionally unemployed individuals," said Gregory H. Wingfield, executive director of the Greater Richmond Partnership, a regional economic-development organization. "The new unemployed are people who have had jobs for decades, are college-educated, and through no fault of their own their companies went out of business."

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The workforce partnership estimated Friday that 10,280 jobs have been lost in Richmond and seven surrounding counties since the beginning of 2008.

That estimate includes up to 1,000 potential layoffs by Altria Corp., parent of Philip Morris USA. The company says the numbers are greatly overstated and don't reflect the likely addition of jobs from operations in other parts of the country. But it acknowledged job reductions in manufacturing and research operations in the area and said a "larger wave" of workers will leave before the end of this month.

Henrico officials say that even without the potential losses at Altria and Philip Morris, the region has lost at least 10,114 jobs to layoffs, based on unemployment claims filed with the Virginia Employment Commission since Dec. 1.

"I think it's the low end," said Drumwright, who added that the numbers might not reflect people who still have severance benefits or people who worked for outside contractors at Qimonda.

Chesterfield County spokesman Donald J. Kappel estimated Friday that 2,500 to 3,000 jobs have been lost in the county, based on layoffs announced by large companies. "It would not be reflective of what's happening with small businesses," Kappel said.

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Qimonda accounts for most of the direct tax revenue lost to Henrico, along with the impending closures of Circuit City Stores Inc. and LandAmerica Corp, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of S&K Famous Brands Inc., and cutbacks at Genworth Financial Corp.

Out of $7.1 million in expected revenue losses, about $4.9 million represents taxes on business personal property, machinery and tools, especially at the Qimonda factory.

Vithoulkas, the county's finance director, said those costs can be absorbed in Henrico's more than $1 billion budget, which has been helped by spending caps in flush times.

The Qimonda plant shutdown and other layoffs have hurt smaller localities.

In Hanover, for example, about 10,000 more people leave the county for work each day than come there for jobs, according to Marc Weiss, director of economic development. "A lot of our people did work at Circuit City, LandAmerica and Qimonda."

The county's unemployment rate doubled from 2.2 percent in December 2007 to 4.5 percent this past December. Sales-tax revenue is down about 8 percent in this fiscal year, primarily because of diminished sales of large equipment for construction, as well as competition from a new shopping center in eastern Henrico, Weiss said.

For New Kent County Administrator John A. Budesky, the regional center is an opportunity for New Kent to help many of the county's 18,000 residents who work in other localities.

"It wasn't a question of do we want to help," he said. "It's a question of how can we and how quickly."

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writers Emily C. Dooley and John Reid Blackwell contributed to this report.