Economic forum in Macomb to seek solutions to job losses
Report on Illinois jobs not positive
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
GALESBURG - West-central Illinois has been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs in recent years. A forum scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon Friday in Macomb will look at changing economic conditions and give those in attendance a chance to talk about possible solutions.The forum, "State of Working Illinois: Challenges and Opportunities," is presented by the Workforce Investment Office of Western Illinois, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and the Illinois Works for the Future Campaign. The meeting will be in the Macomb City Hall Community Room, 232 E. Jackson St.
According to Northern Illinois University's Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, west-central Illinois has lost 4,447 manufacturing jobs since 2001, more than 32 percent of all its manufacturing jobs. More than 2,000 of those jobs left Galesburg in 2003 and 2004 with the departure of Maytag and Butler Manufacturing. The region included in the forum stretches to Adams County to the south, as well as Knox, Warren, Henderson and McDonough counties in this area. However, there appears to be little focus here toward the Macomb area.
Galesburg economic development director Cesar Suarez said he believes in regional economic development. He said he and Chamber of Commerce and Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association representatives attend the monthly Peoria Economic Development Roundtable. He thinks the growing number of Galesburg area residents commuting to Caterpillar in Peoria and John Deere in the Quad Cities, as well other jobs in both cities, shifts the regional focus here to the north and southeast, rather than the southwest.
"When I think regional, for some reason, nobody has told me Macomb, it's always Peoria and the Quad Cities," said Suarez, a recent transplant from Centralia.
Neither Suarez nor Galesburg City Manager Dane Bragg was told about the meeting. On Friday, Bragg will be at a meeting concerning another regional economic development issue, the possible expansion of U.S. 34 to four lanes between Monmouth and Burlington, Iowa.
The report
Ralph Martire, executive director of CTBA, said much of the forum will be spent looking at the data in the report and what it says about the state, and, specifically, this area. From 1990 to 2005, Illinois lost 24.3 percent of its manufacturing jobs. Three service industries - professional and business services, education and health services, and the leisure and hospitality industry - had a 37.1 percent increase in jobs during the same period.
"All three of these high-growth service sector jobs pay less than the jobs being replaced," according to forum organizers.
"Based on current trends, this downward spiral is projected to continue, unless the state takes a thoughtful, bipartisan approach to economic and workforce development," Martire said.
Martire said the idea behind the forums - one was in Belleville on Monday and another Tuesday in Peoria - is to learn from local leaders.
"What we are doing is mining information as to what is needed," Martire said.
The 2006 executive summary of "The State of Working Illinois," paints a bleak picture.
"Taken together, the four fastest growing service activities in 2006 - business and professional services, financial services, education and health services, and the leisure and hospitality industry - had a weighted weekly average wage that was 20.5 percent below the average weekly manufacturing wage," according to the executive summary.
"My guess is the response is, we think we may be able to do better," Martire said. The 2007 report will be available in November.
Education and training, job quality and workforce well-being, and opportunities to work together in new ways so that west-central Illinois has skilled workers, a strong economy and a thriving community also will be discussed.
