Figure 3
under the Administrative and Support Services sector, which grew by 20 percent. The Temporary Help Services subsector added 10,000 new jobs, accounting for the vast majority of that 20 percent job growth. Many of these 10,000 jobs were located in manufacturing facilities, but since they are employed by temporary help service companies, they’re counted in this sector. In fact, if we took even half of these temporary jobs and counted them under the manufacturing sector, we’d see West Michigan’s already strong advanced manufacturing growth far exceed national averages. Another growth area within the service sector is Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, which experienced 4 percent job growth (750 new jobs) from 2015 to 2017. This sector includes a wide variety of knowledge-based jobs that require a high degree of expertise and training such as IT, accounting, legal, architecture, engineering, design, and management. The Right Place completed several service sector-related economic development projects in 2017, including an expansion of Advantage Sales & Marketing in the City of Wyoming. This project alone is expected to generate a total investment of $4.3 million and create 100 new jobs. The quantitative data paints a clear picture: West Michigan’s agribusiness and food processing, advanced manufacturing, services, and construction sectors are growing the fastest, and out-pacing both state and national averages. This demonstrated exceptionalism is why they are included in The Right Place’s Strategic Plan for economic growth. It’s also why our business development team meets with over 400 of these companies each year to ensure their job growth remains here in West Michigan. Of the 400 companies our team meets with annually, most are middle market companies with annual revenue between $1 million-$100million (See Figure 3) , and are distributed across several key industries. (See Figure 4) These strategic business retention efforts account for 80 to 85 percent of our work in a given year. They also offer us qualitative insights into the challenges, opportunities, and trends facing companies in West Michigan, detailed further in the following section. THE VOICE OF WEST MICHIGAN BUSINESS
Visits by company annual sales
10%
25%
n $0-1 Million n $1-25 Million n $25-100 Million n $100+ Million
45%
20%
Figure 4
Visits by company industry
6%
6%
n Advanced Manufacturing n Information Technology & Communications n Other Industries
12%
60%
16%
n Life Sciences & Medical Device n Food Processing & Agribusiness
Figure 5
Visits by company employment trends
2%
n Companies that report INCREASING employment n Companies that report STABLE employment n Companies that report DECREASING employment
35%
63%
Figure 6
Visits by company sales trends
2%
23%
n Companies that report INCREASING sales n Companies that report STABLE sales n Companies that report DECREASING sales
75%
15
THE STATE OF OUR REGION
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