At yesterday's Chamber and Partnership 2020 Annual Meeting, we announced the region’s economic development “scorecard" for the July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011 fiscal year. In the spirit of the often-quoted Lewis Carroll statement, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there,” a number of years ago we set up a set of concrete, quantifiable, objective metrics to gauge the impact of the Chamber’s economic development activities on the 10-county region’s economy.
So how did we stack up in the past year?
When considered in the context of the nation’s economic situation, I would say that Nashville is one of the better cities in America to live in these days for economic performance. In this graph, you’ll see that the Nashville-area economy continued to gain momentum in the past 12 months. In year-over-year gains, 2010-2011 gives clear indication that we’re bouncing back to growth levels in job and labor force performance not seen in several years. People are returning to the workforce as job opportunities are increasing. And employment gains from the start of 2011 have exhibited the best sustained result in five years.
More good news - Middle Tennessee is attracting jobs and job growth through expansions and relocations. From July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011, the Nashville region has logged a total of 103 announced relocations and expansions, adding 7,321 new jobs, nearly $1.7 billion in capital investment, and 5.8 million square feet of space to be occupied by these growing firms.
What does this tell us? In my view, these results prove that positive economic growth doesn’t happen by accident. Great, healthy economies are the result of intentional, focused effort by leaders throughout our region.
As we look forward to the next five years, we have reason to be optimistic. The past five-year Partnership economic development cycle helped result in nearly 40,000 new jobs created in the Nashville region. And when we look at the big picture, we can see that Nashville recovers faster from recessions because of our diverse economy and high level of entrepreneurship.
So all in all, yesterday was a good day for economic development in Nashville as we reviewed the past 12 months, and the outlook ahead is bright, in our book.
Click the screenshot below to view the video presentation from the meeting.