A blustery Tuesday morning in late October served as the setting for the La Porte and Michigan City Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Briefing. Dozens of professors and business professionals gathered for breakfast at Purdue University North Central.
La Porte Chamber President Mike Seitz explained the reason they have been organizing this semi-annual event for the last eleven years. “There was previously no relationship between the PNC business school and the community,” Seitz said, “[this] provides a forum for discussing issues and trends.”
The event also gives PNC professors a chance to flex their thinking muscles. Cynthia Roberts, Interim Dean in the College of Business and the emcee for the briefing, explained, “Dr. Derek Bjonback and Professor Anthony Sindone do the research and sift through the data to see what’s going on in La Porte County.”
Bjonback and Sindone both presented some very interesting statistics on the local economy. Bjonback discussed the economic growth in the region as slightly slow, but definitely positive. One example he gave for the positive movement in the economy is the rise of home prices. Though this area suffered a drastic dip in 2008-2009, Bjonback explained that the way the market is recovering now is right on track with historical projections of the Home Price Index.
Bjonback also discussed two possible scenarios for the Congressional Budget Office in 2013, and the projected impact of each on the growth of the economy, one option being changing the federal tax and spending policies, the other being maintaining the current tax cuts and budget. According to the projections of the CBO, the first option would create a recession in the first half of the year, but the economy would quickly recover. The second option would sustain slower growth, but would not have the recessionary impact of the first.
Either way, the CBO and Bjonback seem to be saying that the economy will continue to recover and grow, which is good news all the way around.
Professor Sindone focused his section of the lecture on labor trends in the region and state. He explained that although unemployment percentages have decreased, the majority of those working now who were not before are working one or more part-time jobs, rather than one full-time job. In order for employers to feel comfortable hiring new full-time employees, as Sindone explained, they need to feel confident that the economy is going to continue to grow.
Sindone’s belief is that in order for the economy to sustain growth we must have a competent and capable workforce to do the work that needs to be done. According to Sindone, only 17% of students who enter high school will graduate college with a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. He suggested that we need to find a way to motivate students to achieve higher education, whether that be a four-year degree program, or vocational education.
While not even the most creative economist could say that the economy is in great shape right now, the consensus of the Chamber Economic Briefing was that we will continue to see growth in the local economy. As Roberts told me, “[the information] isn’t great, but it’s better than last year!” With the way the economy has been for the last few years, that statement conveys more of a positive outlook than we’ve had for a while.
For more detailed information on the economic status of La Porte and the region, visit http://www.lpchamber.com/econdevelop.htm.