The U.S. Census Bureau has released 2017 data on its OnTheMap website, which is a very intuitive source for recent employment and commuting data. This data is available for most areas of the U.S., and the West Piedmont Planning District is no exception. Using this tool, we will look briefly at employment concentration and major employers in the City of Martinsville and Henry County. According to the website, data sources for this information include Unemployment Insurance Wage Records, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Quarterly Census for Employment and Wages (QCEW) (https://lehd.ces.census.gov/applications/help/onthemap.html#!data_sources).
The figure below shows employment in the City of Martinsville and Henry County in 2017. According to this figure, employment is concentrated in the center of the City of Martinsville, and northeast of the city, at the Patriot Centre and North Bowles industrial parks, as well as at the nearby campus of Patrick Henry Community College. Patriot Centre and the adjacent North Bowles industrial parks are home to large employers such as Monogram Foods, Eastman Chemical, Radial, ICF International, Nautica, Springs Industries, and others. Other areas of employment include the commercial area just west of the city limit, which includes establishments such as Roses, Wal-Mart, and Lowes, as well as Martinsville Industrial Park, located just south of the city. This industrial park is home to companies such as Drake Extrustion, Laminate Technologies, and others. Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre, located in the southern portion of Henry County near the North Carolina line, will be home to Press Glass, which is a European-based producer of flat glass. The City of Martinsville, meanwhile hosts many retail jobs, particularly at its Village of Martinsville shopping center, which accommodates national retailers including Kroger, Marshalls, Dunham Sports, and Belk. Just to the east of this shopping center is SOVAH Health, the hospital serving the City of Martinsville and Henry County. Uptown Martinsville comprises a variety of restaurant, retail, service, and office functions. OnTheMap can be accessed at https://www.google.com/search?q=onthemap&oq=onthemap&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.1095j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.
Martinsville and Henry County together offer great opportunities for RIDE Solutions to work with employers to promote transportation demand management (TDM). If you represent an employer in the West Piedmont Region, particularly in the human resources sector, and your company is trying to minimize absenteeism due to lack of reliable transportation, while maximizing your pool of qualified workers, RIDE Solutions can be a great benefit to your firm. At no cost to you, we will promote carpooling and vanpooling, and help you and your employees find other alternatives to driving alone such as transit and other means, where practical. I will be more than happy to meet with you to tell you a little more about our program, and I can be reached at Jbonanno@wppdc.org or at (276) 638-3987. To learn more about the RIDE Solutions program – including the free ride-matching app – please visit ridesolutions.org.
