West Virginia Chamber President Steve Roberts said that West Virginia, where it sits in the United States, is primed to take advantage of the growth around it. Yet, for that to happen, there’s plenty that the state needs to work on.

Roberts relayed that message to Northern Panhandle business and political leaders Friday morning at NB Cafe in Wheeling.

He said the state Chamber is excited for what could be in the Mountain State, but didn’t want to paint an inaccurately rosy picture of the current landscape.

“We want to be a data-driven organization,” Roberts said. “We love happy talk and we understand why some people go out and do happy talk. But it’s not always our role to do happy talk.”

There is great promise with West Virginia, he said, mainly due to its location — sitting between the prosperous Northeastern states and the rapidly expanding Southeast.

“We’re ideally located between the wealthiest and the fastest growing markets in the world for growth,” he said. “You’re beginning to see signs that it’s happening, but we need to do so much more.”

Much needs done in the realm of workforce participation, he said. West Virginia has lost 13,000 people in its civilian labor force over the last 10 years.

Participation has dropped in the private sector, mining and logging, manufacturing, hospitality and tourism and retail. Only the healthcare field has seen growth over the last decade.

In talking with employers, Roberts said there are several issues ­– a lack of applicants overall, a lack of applicants with the appropriate skill levels for the open jobs and a lack of applicants who have learned to be “work ready,” ready to take their jobs seriously, show up on time and have the proper attitude.

Some of the solution, he said, is found in education. School districts need the proper resources, Roberts said. Teachers need paid appropriately, need the support from the community and need to be able to teach the necessary skills. Among those are “soft skills” that lead to work-ready applicants.

The Chamber is doing its part, Roberts said, through its Jobs for West Virginia’s Graduates program, which takes high school students in danger of dropping out and supports them on the path to graduation. He said the program is working.

“The story I like to tell, because I think it says so much, is that we ran this program in Logan County in its first year and we had a young lady who was going to drop out of high school,” he said. “She got involved in the Jobs for West Virginia’s Graduates program at her high school and she was accepted early admission to Notre Dame.”

Child care is another major component to job participation growth, Roberts said. Many people aren’t able to enter the workforce because child care is too expensive, if it can be found at all.

Another key in increased workforce participation is creating an economic environment in West Virginia that spurs businesses and skilled workers to want to move to the state.

“Employers support a strong quality of life,” he said. “They support a good public infrastructure. They very quickly add the importance of diversity and inclusion into the conversation.

“I speak for employers,” Roberts added. “I have their wind at my back. The employers of West Virginia will not take one step back when it comes to discrimination. They will tell you up front that diversity matters, that inclusion matters. We have a better state when we can attract people to come here who we need.”