Where Are We Today?
Newport News remains the economic engine of the Virginia Peninsula. Nearly 112,000 people, including military, work in Newport News. About 45% of these jobs are in the basic sector. Figures 2-1 and 2-2 show the make-up of the City’s economy and its strength within the region.
Despite three decades of economic diversification, the economic base in Newport News is still dominated by Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and Fort Eustis. Both are tied to national defense. Due to the strength of defense spending relative to weakness in the nation’s manufacturing sector, shipbuilding and the military accounts for 76% of the City's economic base—an increase of 11 percentage points since 1999. Nevertheless, the City's economic base has diversified with the expansion of Ferguson Enterprises/Wolseley North America, Continental AG, the Jefferson Lab and companies in Oakland Industrial Park. Future diversification will occur with the expansion of Canon Virginia.
The new Marriott Hotel and Conference Center at City Center, or the City’s historic attractions in the Lee Hall area, make tourism a more viable component of the City’s economic base. However, economic diversification will have to occur more rapidly in the future to reduce the City's reliance on the national defense sector. The City is looking, in particular, to growth in the office and high-tech sectors to provide this diversification.
Regional base industries, which are firms that sell their products and services within the Hampton Roads region, also are
important to the health of the local economy. About 20% of the jobs located in Newport News are in regional base industries.
(Figure 2-1 shows Newport News’ strength in this area within the region). The largest regional base industries in Newport
News are business services, engineering and health care. Business services include major law firms and accounting firms.
These are concentrated in Oyster Point. Many of the stores and restaurants located in the Patrick Henry retail corridor,
City Center at Oyster Point and Port Warwick draw a substantial number of their customers from communities surrounding Newport
News and are also a part of the City’s regional economic base.
The rest of the economy (36%) is the nonbasic sector composed of local consumer- oriented industries. Here, Newport News'
historic under-representation has disappeared since 2000 due, for the most part, to the development of the Patrick Henry retail
corridor.
