Mark Sanchez: Well, one of the things that really jumped out of the report to me, and this is a report Grand Valley's Seidman College of Business does every year, takes a look at just Health Check, the status of the healthcare economy here in West Michigan, the four county area, Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, Allegan (Counties). One of the things that really jumped out is just what they call a burgeoning, a bastion of optimism in the broader job market landscape. And that's basically employment growth for care providers, physician practices, hospitals, care centers. There's a number of jobs being added in a whole bunch of fields in health care these days. It's really a growth sector here in West Michigan, as it is all over the country. In particular, things such as obviously nurses, there's been a big nursing shortage in this country for many years. Home health aides as we move more toward this care model of an aging population, folks as they perhaps start experiencing health issues as they age prefer to age in their home. So, home health aides is a big area for employment growth. Medical assistance, dental assistance, and nursing aides, those are just some of the fastest growing professions in healthcare right now. And it's, again, it's a big sector, a lot of jobs. This is one of the areas identified for growth and one of the trends identified in this Grand Valley Annual Health Check Report.
Patrick Center: Yes, there are job openings. Are there the skilled workers to fill those positions?
Mark Sanchez: Well, that's the issue across the economy and in every sector right now. We're seeing more work. The health system's working directly with community colleges and the colleges and universities. We had another story just last week as well. Trinity Health Grand Rapids is working with Central Michigan University. That's creating an on-campus, four-year nursing programs and Trinity Health Grand Rapids is going to be one of the clinical training locations. When nurses go through their clinical rotations and do their clinical training on site at a care provider, Trinity Health will become one of those sites for Central Michigan. And the hope there is not only to train that new generation of nurse, but perhaps they had a good experience during their clinical rotation there. They'll look to go to work there and apply for an open position. So, every health system has a lot of open nursing positions, there's been a lot of work, sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses, higher pay, but there's also a very high burnout rate in that profession right now. And a lot of folks, especially during the last four years, have left the profession or they decided to go to maybe a little less stressful care setting. Burnout's a big issue. So that is the question. The point you raised, is there enough people to fill these positions? We're an aging population. That means we require more care. The baby boomers are retiring so that increase in demand, the supply is going down as an entire generation of retires. So, there's a supply and demand issue in healthcare right now for labor. And yeah, the health systems are obviously very acutely aware of it. They're doing what they can to bring more people into the profession to fill all these jobs that are going to be created in the years ahead.
Patrick Center: We're talking with Crain's Grand Rapids Business Senior Writer Mark Sanchez. The Pure Michigan tourism campaign took a budget cut last year. The governor had her State of the State address not so long ago and has proposed a budget. Now we're seeing some dollars being funneled back into the Pure Michigan tourism campaign.
Mark Sanchez: Yeah, this is the campaign that promotes Michigan as a vacation destination, promotes the tourism industry here in Michigan, and it's been quite a successful campaign, if you trust the analytics that go on each year that Travel Michigan does. In last year's budget, it took a big hit in funding. The governor and the legislature only allocated $15 million in the general fund for the Pure Michigan tourism promotion effort. In the budget proposal, the governor pitched the legislature last week, it would raise that to $35 million for the coming fiscal year that starts October 1. So, restore a good chunk of the funding, but as always, it's not quite as much as the industry would like to see. There was a new coalition, industry coalition that just came together to really advocate for the promotion and to advocate for the public funding for the promotion. That's again been going on since 2006. This coalition really wanted to get that back up to $50 million. But right now, the proposal's $35 million for the next fiscal year. The budgets now go through the legislative process, committee and subcommittee meetings and hearings. So, we'll probably find out perhaps mid-summer, late summer, exactly what level of funding the legislature will allocate for Pure Michigan. But bottom line, there is a movement afoot to bring that funding level back up to some of the years that it enjoyed in the past.
Patrick Center: Will that satisfy industry leaders who you talk with?
Mark Sanchez: Don't know if it'll satisfy others. There’s always this yearning for more funding more, you know, you're talking about the appropriations process and public funding. So, it's one of those everybody always wants more, no matter where it is in the budget, it's what the legislature at that point in time and the governor are willing to do and they can afford to do.
Patrick Center: Everybody wants more. Universities, colleges want to see enrollment increase. We've seen a bit of a lull in higher ed enrollment and now it's starting to pick up again.
Mark Sanchez: Yeah, for about a decade we saw declines at four-year universities and kind of ups and downs at community colleges. And this is a story our colleague Sherri Welch over at Crain’s Detroit did this week, looking at enrollments at Michigan colleges and they've ticked up after years of declines. Not huge increases, but boy, it's reversing that direction and you know, we’ve been talking for years we've been telling folks, got to get a college education. For a number of reasons, don't quite understand that those enrollments have been dipping. And then of course they declined as well during the last four years in the pandemic. But now we're getting back to a period where those enrollments are beginning to pick up. There are programs, the Michigan Achievement Scholarship that has helped students fund to go to college, especially community college. We've got the Michigan Reconnect program that started in 2021. That's helping folks get on the path to a two-year associate's degree in career training for people who are 25 and older. It's reversing that trend of that downward trend. And we'll see if this is something that's sustained, and we continue to see these increases. The bottom line at the four-year public universities in Michigan, total enrollment for 2023 for graduate and part-time students, full-time students, an increase to about 0.53%. 0.53% year over year to more than 257,000. And that reversed an 11-year decline in enrollments. It's going in the right direction. And we'll just throw in there, just throw some more numbers. First time freshmen enrollment increased 3.9%, more than 41,000 students last year. So, you're seeing this, perhaps this trend emerge of people going back to college or more people going to college and seeking to get that degree for career training.
Patrick Center: Crain's Grand Rapids Business, senior writer Mark Sanchez. Thank you so much.
Mark Sanchez: Thank you, Patrick.