Virginia Beach Virginia - An Overview

Virginia Beach is known for its "business friendly" environment and has been voted by several magazines to be one of the best U.S. cities to start a business and a great place for women. The major industries in Virginia Beach are tourism and conventions, telecommunications, agribusiness, military and retail and wholesale distribution. Tourism brought in almost $10 billion in 1995, making it the third-largest retail industry and employer. The city's popularity as a tourism destination brought 2.5 million visitors.

With 156 farms and approximately 32,700 acres of land under cultivation, agribusiness contributes more than $55 million to the city's overall economy, which is about one percent of Virginia's annual economy. The coastal fishing industry is the state's smallest revenue producer, despite hundreds of millions of pounds of fish and shellfish pulled from the Chesapeake Bay area each year.

The Census Bureau ranks Virginia Beach second in the number of private-sector business establishments and employees among Virginia's cities and counties.

Virginia Beach is home to four military bases with a combined annual payroll of $913 million for 32,000 armed services and civilian workers. Many highly trained and skilled military members remain in the area to add their special talents to the civilian workforce when their tour of duty ends or they retire.

The Virginia Beach area is also home to over 100 high tech and IT companies, the majority dedicated to communications, computers and information technology systems. Virginia Beach has its own Department of Information Technology to serve as a resource for high-tech and telecommunications companies starting up, relocating and/or expanding within the city.

The labor force consists of both civilian and military personnel and is diverse in background and experience. Virginia Beach features unique labor components, including military personnel and their spouses, seasonal and part-time workers, and college students, to augment the traditional workforce. The labor force is abundant and is evaluated by employers to be productive, reliable and energetic. Employees in Virginia Beach have a reputation for very low absenteeism and turnover rates, outstanding work ethics and military influenced work discipline.

Virginia Beach offers a wide variety of programs, services and incentives which reduce the costs of relocating and expanding a facility within the city. Land and buildings are competitively priced to provide a multitude of options for business start-ups, expansion and relocation. Virginia Beach's economy is diverse and offers many jobs.