The Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development recently attended an event with the Illinois Site Selectors, professional consultants that work with companies looking to locate a project in the United States. One a year a panel gets together and discusses trends being seen nationally and locally, says President Ken Springer:
“The main takeaway amongst these site consultants; these consultants work across different industries, but the one thing they all agreed on is they were all really busy right now. There is a large number of projects in the United States and that is true at a local level, but the thing that the Site Selectors stressed was workforce availability is the key for your region in your state to be competitive. They as site consultants are looking at trends and population loss, they are viewing that as a major negative for an event when they are doing evaluations of states and regions. Population loss, workforce availability, these are key, key, key things for communities that want to be competitive in attracting projects.”
Springer says enrollment into vocational programs locally at the high schools and community colleges will be the tell of a strong economy as workforce and population growth are the economic issue facing the Western Illinois region.
**Written by WMOI/WRAM Director of Communications Kelsey Crain**
