evidence: In early-2022, metals manufacturer Nucor announced it would invest $2.7 billion to construct a new steel sheet mill in Mason County, which represents the single-largest private capital investment in West Virginia’s history and the largest ever for the company. The plant’s construction is expected to take approximately two years to complete (late-2024/early-2025) and is expected to require a construction workforce of as many as 2,000 at peak development. Once in operation, the plant is expected to employ 800 production workers and produce up to 3 million tons of steel sheet per year. Nucor also has optioned a site in another part of West Virginia where it is considering building a transloading and processing center to provide logistical support to its Northeast and Midwest markets. [...] West Virginia’s economic expansion continues in 2022 with growth in employment, wages, consumer sales and economic output. Payroll employment levels are rising at an annual pace of roughly 2.8 percent this year following a 1.7 percent increase in 2021. The State’s unemployment rate is near a record low of just 3.7 percent. Even though non-farm payroll employment remains roughly 1.7 percent below pre-pandemic levels, household employment levels have fully recovered. Wage and salary disbursement growth of more than 10 percent is due to a combination of higher average wages and higher employment. Even though real disposable personal income is down by more than 6 percent from the prior year due to the end of fiscal stimulus payments, retail sales growth continues at a brisk pace in 2022. As of June 2022, West Virginia’s foreign goods exports are up 39 percent over the prior year.