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Monday, May 11, 2009

Brookings Beats Lake County on Private Sector Job Creation

KELO gets me reading the April 2009 Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter. There's lots of postworthy information... but before I head to work, one key comparison warrants our attention.

In the period from 2002 to 2008, private sector jobs in Lake County grew from 3,741 to 3,776. That's a 0.94% increase.

Over the same period, Brookings County saw private sector employment grow from 11,209 to 13,344, a 19.05% increase.

35 new jobs here. 2,135 new jobs in Brookings County. Forward Madison is aiming for 400 new jobs by 2012, an 11% increase that still falls well short of what Brookings has achieved over the last six years.

Our economic development director, Dwaine Chapel, lives in Brookings. To catch up on those job gains, Mr. Chapel might want to take a day off and walk around the town he lives in to see what they're doing that Madison can copy.

1 comment:

  1. Good catch Cory. That is no meaningful gain and in terms of quality of jobs they are probably less. People from Rosco and Arctic Cat tell me they feel underemployed. This is my sore spot. When I came back to Madison in 2002 and wanted to find employment my best option was to commute to Sioux Falls which I loathed to do, although many people are because they think of Madison as home. We can't have a vibrant town without better employment. To me, this points out a change is necessary: strategy, people, expectations.

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