The State of the Region report shares key trends impacting the region drawn from The Right Place’s research team and economic development work across eight counties.
President and CEO Randy Thelen says overall the outlook is positive.
“We continue to outpace the state and nation which is good and now we’re measuring ourselves against the best-of-the-best across the country and we’re competing well in some areas, and we need to compete more in others.”
The region’s cost of living is 8% below the national average, it has faster growth in employment, including 40,000 tech sector workers and a higher concentration of young people in the population.
Some challenges ahead include a housing shortage, manufacturing disruptions from potential tariffs, and a swing back to the labor shortage, says Michael Horrigan, President of the W.E. Upjohn Institute.
“The labor shortage is coming back. Anything that‘s different about immigration will tighten the labor shortage. So anything that goes on there will just tighten us up and we’re just going to be on that continued demographic pathway that will tighten the labor market for the next 10-12 years. At minimum.”
A link to The Right Place 2025 Economic Outlook can be found here.
