It was recently reported that St. Mary’s County ranked second in the state in highest weekly wages in Q2 2008. Only Montgomery County led us. St. Mary’s also ranked second in lowest unemployment in December 2008, behind Howard County, the county that boasted the highest 2007 median household income in the state, and the third highest in the nation (behind Loudoun and Fairfax Counties in Virginia).
Our sister county Calvert County ranked sixth nationwide. Maryland ranked highest among all states. What all this tells us is we are among good company. The key reason is our steady federal employment base. Locally, the 22,000+ workers at NAS Patuxent River hail mostly from St. Mary’s and represent the single-largest segment of our workforce.
How many remember Avis Rent-a-Car’s promotional tagline, “We Try Harder”? It was coined in the early 1960s when Avis ranked #2 against the industry giant Hertz. Avis used the #2 ranking to their advantage, vowing to try harder than the leader. In fact, they’ve brought back the slogan in today’s marketing efforts.
St. Mary’s County finds itself today much like Avis did, second to the likes of Montgomery and Howard Counties. Of course we are about a third the size of Howard and a tenth the size of Montgomery. Being a rural peninsula more than an hour away we’ll never rival them in size, but our unique economic makeup affords us many advantages. Take education as just one example. Our demographics influence very positively improvements in the local school system, in ever-expanding higher education offerings, and the social contract between employers and educational institutions that work more closely together to sustain this wonderful situation. We’re trying harder because our expectations have been raised. It’s much like the rising tide raising all boats principle.
At the same time, these economic blessings are not equally shared. There are many residents and households in the County who are not part, or within a few degrees of separation, of the federal employment web. The layoffs from lack of work are affecting these Countians especially. They are trying very hard in very trying times. However possible we all need to try harder to help those most in need, not just for now but to help sustain the County’s continued progress. To continue down the path we’ve embarked upon we’ll need every Countian to be part of this.