GRAND RAPIDS ? The good news for West Michigan is for the first time in years the Grand Rapids area will add more jobs, says George Erickcek, senior analyst at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, who projects overall job growth of 1.1 percent next year, though public-sector employment will continue to decline.
Erickcek estimated that goods-producing and service-producing jobs will each grow 1.4 percent in 2012. Government employment in the region will decline a projected 2.4 percent, resulting in the overall 1.1 percent employment gain.
While welcome, the projected job growth, even with the gains of 2011, still would leave the four-county Grand Rapids metropolitan statistical area 17,000 jobs below pre-recession employment levels, Erickcek said before several hundred people Wednesday at the Right Place Economic Forecast breakfast.
Overall, though, the region is positioned well for improved job and economic growth once the economy finally takes off, Right Place Inc. CEO Birgit Klohs said. In the last three years, the economic development organization has participated in projects that collectively generated $444 million in investment and retained or created 7,400 jobs.
Based on data he gathered and analyzed, Erickcek estimates that overall employment in the Grand Rapids area will grow 2 percent in 2011, led by a strong 2.9 percent gain in goods-producing jobs that stem from the strong rebound for the domestic auto industry and its suppliers. Erickcek estimates 2.0 percent growth in service-producing jobs for 2011 and a 3.8 percent decline in government employment.
Going into 2011, Erickcek had forecast moderate overall employment growth of 0.8 percent for the area. Looking beyond next year, he preliminarily sees 1.2 percent growth in overall employment that includes a 0.4 percent gain in goods-producing jobs and a 1.5 percent increase in service-producing jobs.
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