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Wheeling Area Economic Outlook: 2021-2025, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Wheeling Area economy has seen large swings in economic activity over the past several years. Surging energy production and massive increases in pipeline construction activity fueled strong economic growth during 2017 and 2018. By contrast, the completion of pipeline projects and two large hospital closures weighed on area payrolls in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic dealt the regional economy a major blow in early-2020. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the Wheeling Area economy along with our forecast for regional economic conditions for the next five years.