RPI Newsletter - Q3 2019

Several projects The Right Place assisted with last year involved the creation of jobs in these fields. One example is our project with Virginia-based cyber security company, GRIMM. We worked with the company to ensure they selected Michigan as the location for their cybersecurity research lab. The project will create 27 high-tech jobs and a $621,000 capital investment in the Village of Sparta.

Another important area within this industry is the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services subsector, which experienced 2% job growth (232 new jobs) from 2016 to 2018 – down 2 percentage points from 2015-2017. This sector includes a wide variety of positions requiring a high degree of expertise and training such as IT, accounting, legal, architecture, engineering, design, and management.

Foremost Farms is an example of this growth. Last year, our team worked on an expansion project with the farmer-owned milk processing and marketing cooperative. With about 1,400 dairy farmer members and $1.5 billion in annual sales, The Right Place and Foremost Farms announced the company would invest $57.9 million in an expansion, adding 33 jobs to its Greenville facility. CONSTRUCTION (+8% job growth, 1,670 new jobs) Overall, construction jobs jumped by 8%, a faster pace than the state (6%) and nation (5%). West Michigan subcontractors and general contractors saw explosive job growth, but subcontractors in particular accounted for over half of the sector’s growth. These are businesses involved in building construction, but not responsible for the entire project, such as electricians, building material providers, safety and security suppliers, etc. SERVICES (+1% job growth, 915 new jobs) At a 1% job growth rate, the region’s services sector continues to grow, but at a slower pace than it did between 2015 and 2017. One sector heavily inf luencing in this industry’s growth is Administrative and Support Services, which grew a rapid 20% between 2015-2017. However, growth calmed in 2016-2018 to 0.4%. The Temporary Help Services subsector withinAdministrative and Support Services is the largest subsector in the services industries. While the jobs fall under this category, workers actually work at companies in manufacturing, call centers, warehousing, and other industries.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

VISITS BY COMPANY ANNUAL SALES $0-10 Million – 46% $10-50 Million – 36% $50.1-200 Million – 11% $200 – 500 Million – 4% $500M+ – 3%

VISITS BY COMPANY INDUSTRY

Advanced Manufacturing – 56% IT & Communications – 20% Other Industries – 12% Life Sciences & Medical Device – 3% Food Processing & Agribusiness – 9%

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

VISITS BY COMPANY EMPLOYMENT TRENDS Increasing Employment – 61% Companies that report... Stable Employment – 37% Decreasing Employment – 2%

VISITS BY COMPANY SALES TRENDS Increasing Sales – 79% Companies that report... Stable Sales – 20% Decreasing Sales – 1%

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STATE OF OUR REGION

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