Just as the Richmond area is growing, so is its need for teachers, librarians, police officers, dispatchers and other municipal workers.

The number of full-time equivalent jobs at local governments and school systems in the 20 localities in central Virginia increased by 1.5 percent in 2008 compared with the prior year.

"Municipalities play an important role in Richmond's economy," said Christine Chmura, president and chief economist for the Richmond-based consulting firm Chmura Economics & Analytics. "The government sector tends to be more stable than the private sector."

With the economy faltering, Chmura said she expects slower growth and perhaps some losses in municipal jobs during the next year even though the region continues to add residents, which drives the need for more teachers, police officers and other workers.

In some respects, Chmura suggests thinking of the large localities, particularly Chesterfield and Henrico, as having the same impact as major private and state employers such as VCU Health System, HCA and Capital One.

Chesterfield, which leads the region with more than 311,000 residents, also has the most municipal employees, 11,067.

Yet, with a region-high of nearly 58,000 students to educate, a large share of Chesterfield's total number of employees work within the school system. The number of teachers, administrators, custodians and other school employees outpaced their counterparts in county government nearly 2-to-1.

At the same time, Chesterfield has fewer government-only workers than Henrico and Richmond.

Henrico had 1.49 percent more government-only employees in 2008 compared with the prior year.

Richmond had the largest number of full-time government jobs among the 20 localities in central Virginia -- at 5,039 workers, up 0.44 percent from the previous year.

Richmond, with its greater challenges with crime and poverty, also is the only locality with more government workers than school workers. Nearly 60 percent of Richmond's municipal employees work in its government.

By contrast, Powhatan County has the largest percentage of municipal jobs assigned to schools. About 84 percent of the county's total employees work in the school system.

That isn't likely to change anytime soon as largely rural Powhatan continues to develop and attract new residents, including many families from Chesterfield.

A testament to that growth in Powhatan is the planned Flat Rock Elementary School.

By this fall, the school will open its doors to hundreds of students, plus its own set of teachers, custodians, administrators and other workers.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.