News from Boyette Strategic Advisors

AEDC plans study to ID industries state will target

Jonesboro, AR – 01/23/2008

Arkansas economic development officials will unveil a new targeted industry study that identifies the kinds of jobs the state will court in coming years.

The study, spearheaded by the Arkansas economic Development Commission, was conducted by Boyette Levy, an Atlanta-based research company. The study examined the nature of jobs in which the state is interested. It looked at areas of the state where the workforce exists to lure those kinds of jobs and how the state can attract them.

“It’s a set of targeted industries that we have identified based on Arkansas’ strengths,” said Scott Hardin, spokesman for Arkansas Economic Development Commission. “This list that we have come up with will … help us direct our marketing efforts toward … specific people in those industries. It really gives us direction.”

The study is set for release Jan. 29, but Hardin said the list includes jobs in information technology, life sciences and health care, food and kindred industries, certain manufacturing and a variety of others.

Well-balanced list

“It’s a well-balanced list. …,” Hardin said. “It covers a wide variety and it really shows Arkansas’s versatility and strength in the different sectors.”

According to the Department of Workforce Services, the Northeast Arkansas Workforce Investment Area, including Clay, Craighead, Greene, Lawrence, Mississippi, Poinsett and Randolph counties, projected employment is expected to grow 18 percent from 2004 to 2014. Employment is expected to see its biggest gains in education and health services (28.8 percent or 6,426 new jobs); professional and business services (56 percent or 3,391 new jobs); manufacturing (22 percent or 4,725 jobs); and leisure and hospitality (18.9 percent or 1,329 new jobs).

The state targeted industry study follows closely on the heels of a local labor study, sponsored by the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce and released last week, that shows Jonesboro has a well-rounded, highly educated and skilled work force.

Mark Young, president and chief executive officer of the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce, is eager to see which industries the state has targeted and identified for Jonesboro and how they match up with the information the chamber learned in its own study.

“This information [chamber study] may be interesting as a comparison to what the targeted industry study says as far as availability of skills and an industry cluster standpoint,” Young said.

AEDC will kick off a series of eight meetings across the state, including one in Jonesboro on Jan. 31, to showcase the results and help local economic developers develop a strategy to put the plan into action.

Hardin said Boyette Levy developed profiles of the industries in each category and will provide those to communities they visit and encourage each region to embrace the plan.

“We’ll need their participation to make this successful,” Hardin said.