The Purdue University North Central School of Business provided concerned citizens and members of the Greater La Porte Chamber of Commerce and Michigan City Area Chamber of Commerce with an economic update about Northwest Indiana on the morning of April 9, 2013.
The update measured the region’s economic indicators against national statistics, citing data researched from organizations like the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The outlook showed many positive trends for La Porte County, including growth of employment in the manufacturing and professional/business services sectors since 2009. The change in earnings over the past 10 years puts La Porte County slightly below the national average, but netting a positive growth by that measure.
“Our economic base is recovering well,” explained R. Derek Bjonback, Ph.D and Associate Professor of business at PNC. Bjonback cited trends in metals, both fabricating and priming, along with trucking, as economic indicators that show that economic growth is happening in the region.
“Those are indicators that we’ve got an active economy,” he explained.
Tony Sindone, Continuing Lecturer of Economics at PNC, was tasked with debriefing the audience on labor trends in La Porte County and comparing them to trends throughout the state and country. Some of the trends examined included workers’ commuting profiles in and out of the county, career and technical education, college loans and address the skills gap in the region.
Sindone, appreciated interacting with the “movers and shakers” of La Porte County. “[The presentation] gives us the opportunity to share a bit about our research, what we have been finding out about the economy of our region,” he said. “What I really enjoy is the feedback from the audience. They came up with some really good questions and we do our best to answer those.”
Jack Arnett, Executive Director of the La Porte County Convention and Visitors Bureau, also presented about the impact that tourism has had on the economy in La Porte County. The Super Boats Great Lakes Grand Prix and the PGI Convention that took place in La Porte County during 2012 were cited as examples of the importance of bringing in big events like those, complete with a breakdown of percentages of money spent within the county from the thousands who attended the events. Arnett cited a 2-year-old figure that tourism in La Porte County saved households an average of $1,147.70 in taxes due to the income that was generated with the two events.
For more information on the event or to stay up to date with future presentations, visit the Purdue University North Central College of Business at http://www.pnc.edu/academics/cb.html.