Advanced Manufacturing and IT in the New River Valley: Impacts of COVID-19 and Supply Chain Shocks

In 2020, Onward NRV partnered with the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) to determine how Advanced Manufacturing and IT firms in the region were affected by COVID-19 and how these firms felt about their prognosis regarding the next year. To accomplish this, CECE developed surveys designed to generate insight into how businesses were faring. There were 21 manufacturing survey responses and 24 information technology survey responses. CECE also conducted interviews with representatives from two Advanced Manufacturing and two IT firms to generate additional insight.

At that time, close to two-thirds of Advanced Manufacturing and IT firms expected to retain their employees. Sixty-two percent of manufacturers had unfilled production worker and engineer positions, and thirty-eight percent of tech companies needed software engineers, account executives, and production schedulers. Businesses in both sectors generally maintained positive outlooks for the following year. The most significant concern among companies at the end of 2020 was the health and safety of employees.

In 2022, two years after the initial survey, CECE followed up with Advanced Manufacturing and IT firms to see how these businesses were faring. Follow-up survey responses suggest that regional Advanced Manufacturing and IT companies have performed strongly since the onset of the pandemic. Relative to pre-pandemic levels, most firms—83% of technology firms and 75% of manufacturing firms — report maintaining or increasing the number of employees at their firm; payrolls have held steady or increased for approximately 90% of firms in both sectors, and firms report similar or increased revenues. Manufacturing and technology firms correspondingly report positive outlooks. Onward NRV and CECE also conducted semi-structured interviews with firms from each sector to shed additional light on business prognoses and experiences doing business in the New River Valley. Findings from interviews paralleled those expressed in surveys.