Forbes Ranks Stafford as One of the Best Places to Get Ahead

Many counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia have much to brag about. Whether it's a safe, beautiful place to raise your family, or a culturally diverse, exceptional school system, we all have much to boast about.

Stafford County had been given a pat on the back by Forbes.com as being one of the best places in the country to get ahead. They based this on several factors:

• Income and job data from the U.S. Census and Department of Labor Statistics
• Locations where median income was rising the most quickly
• Limited list to counties where the median income was at least $75,000.
• Study of job growth information as far back as 2000

Forbes.com stated that "Stafford County has a proven ability to land federal jobs and companies with government contracts, as well as to attract businesses from all over the country..."

Statistical information from the Virginia Employment Commission shows:

• Stafford is fourth in Virginia in terms of the growth in businesses, by percentage, with an increase of 36.7 percent from 2002 to 2007.
• Stafford is third in the Commonwealth in at-place employment growth with a 34.3 percent increase.
• Stafford now has 2,132 businesses and 34,832 individuals employed in the county.
• Professional and technical services jobs more than doubled from 2002-2007 in Stafford.
• Stafford's new professional jobs growth in the last five years has propelled the county's average weekly wage to more than $40,000 a year for the first time, placing the county second, by percentage, in the Commonwealth in terms of average weekly wage growth.
• Stafford experienced an increase of 43.3 percent in its average weekly wage from 2002 to 2007.

Earlier this year Forbes.com also stated that Stafford was the 11th wealthiest county in the United States, basing their rankings on median household income data estimates from the 2006 census. Stafford's median household income is listed at $85,014.

Here are a list of some of the top Government and Defense Contractors located right here in Stafford County, all of whom currently have positions available:

• BAE Systems
• Booz, Allen, Hamilton
• Northrup Grumman
• Lockhead Martin
• Apogen Technologies
• Pitney Bowes
• L-3 Communications
• QinetiQ North America
• Titan - 2
• ITT Defense Electronics
• Mtcsc
• Saic
• General Dynamics Information Technology
• Department of Defense
• Science Applications
• URS
• Department of the Navy
• Navy, US Marine Corps (Quantico)
• C2 Portfolio Essentials

Irene Morales Ward, Northern Virginia Real Estate