Virginia says ports create 340,000 jobs

Virginia says ports create 340,000 jobs The Virginia Port Authority said a new economic study shows its three general cargo marine terminals in fiscal 2006 accounted for more than 340,000 jobs and topped $41 billion in revenues.
   The agency said the study, recently completed by the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary, attempted to gauge direct, indirect and induced economic benefits from the port.
   The study “validates all of the day-to-day hard work, the continual planning, the capital spending program and the push to modernize and expand our facilities,” said Jerry A. Bridges, executive director of the VPA, adding that the port’s planned “Craney Island Marine Terminal project will drive these numbers even higher.”