Because of its strategic location, the Frederick County area has been a center of commerce and transportation since the eighteenth century. Frederick County and the City of Winchester together comprise a single, unified economic area. Therefore, the County and City have developed a cooperative approach to economic development. The number of employed people living in Frederick County and Winchester has grown in recent years despite fluctuations following the rise and fall of the national economy. Total employment within the private sector was 31,980 for our combined local economy.
Manufacturing continues to play a major role in Frederick County's economy.
Most recently, this manufacturing employment represents more than 4,000 jobs for Frederick County. This figure is projected to reach 59,139 persons by the year 2000. Continuing growth in the population and the employment arena certainly makes Frederick County an exciting place to live and work. For 12,000 years, a sparse population of Indians lived in this area using the wilderness as a hunting ground, but the first Europeans to come through the Shenandoah Valley were Jesuit missionaries in 1632. Successive waves of settlers from Scotland, Germany, and France worked their way down the Valley from Maryland and Pennsylvania to change the wild landscape into an agricultural and manufacturing center.