“What would you do in five years to get Grand Rapids on the cover of Fast Company Magazine?”
This was a question posed to the two candidates vying for the position as the new Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority several weeks ago. It’s sort of an odd question. I understand that it’s great to get mentioned by a big national magazine once in a while. But are we making Grand Rapids an “attention getter,” or are we attention seeking? Perhaps the question should have left out the “five years,” as maybe there’s a story brewing now, even more deserving and attention getting than the cover of
Fast Company.
Doing Its Own Thing
It seems that Grand Rapids has always been a bit of a lone ranger. It’s hard to put a finger on how this city and area tick. It’s not really much like the rest of Michigan, maybe because its history is more tied to furniture and Dutch heritage instead of cars? Or maybe it's because of its proximity to a very large body of water that seems to affect its climate and hence, attitudes so much?
But we are finding that being a little bit different than the rest of Michigan, the Great Lakes region and even the country, has its advantages. Take the recent Michigan “prolonged recession” that the State has been through in the last 10 years, or even recent articles about the national economy
sputtering to get restarted in the latest jobs data reports. While the State as a whole lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, had an unemployment rate that climbed to over 14 percent, and even lost population for the first time ever, the Grand Rapids region stayed closer to the national average and its population stayed relatively unchanged (even registering a small gain in the 2010 census figures).
By the Numbers
Now the latest data out by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that Grand Rapids is on the mend, even outpacing the national average -- so much so that it caught the attention of the
Brookings Institute. To be fair, the State of Michigan is making a strong comeback as well. But not to ever be accused of being baseless cheerleaders for Grand Rapids, let’s take a look at the numbers for a minute:
- Grand Rapids’ recession now looks to have “troughed” or bottomed out around January 2010. Employment for the Grand Rapids-Wyoming Metro area was at its lowest near 334,000, and the unemployment rate stood at 12 percent, or approximately 45,000 registered as unemployed.
- Since employment in this region is seasonal, it’s best to compare the same month year over year, so we’ll use the latest stats available in April 2012 compared to April 2010. In April 2010, employment was at 338,965, with 40,673 unemployed.
- In the most recent data out by BLS for April of 2012, Grand Rapids-Wyoming employment was at 358,596, with 24,029 unemployed.*
- Going from
338,965 to 358,596 amounts to a two-year increase of about 20,000 jobs. That’s enough people to almost twice fill the Van Andel Arena. It also brought the unemployment rate down to 6.3 percent, which was 1.9 percent lower than the national average for April and the lowest we’ve had since April 2008. That might explain why I seem to be stuck in traffic a lot more lately.
- The Census Bureau’s yearly
American Community Survey showed that the GR Metro area had an estimated population increase in 2011 of almost 5500 people, or .7 percent. That’s the largest gain since 2002.
- A recent report put out by Colliers International for the 1
st Quarter of 2012 puts the 108 Million square feet of industrial space in the metro area at about
92.3 percent full. In commercial real estate circles, I believe that’s pretty much considered “full.”
- In a recent statewide survey of college students put out by
Michigan Colleges Foundation, Grand Rapids was ranked the no. 1 destination for future Michigan college grads, outranking Chicago, Seattle, Denver, D.C. and New York City (the usual suspects). Apparently, Michigan college students are feeling confident about Grand Rapids’ job market potential.
- According to Jon Sarb of
Booyango, a Grand Rapids-based employment solutions company, “Barring a financial meltdown overseas, the hiring outlook for Grand Rapids should trend strong for the next three to five years. Overall (with all healthcare fields included), employment growth should be 6.5 to 7 percent; healthcare alone [at] 19 percent, perhaps as high as 22 percent.”
Fast Companies
So who did all the hiring of these 20,000 people over the last two years? We thought we’d give a snapshot of just some of the fastest growing companies in the region, both large and small:
Spectrum Health
It’s hard to deny that one of Michigan’s largest healthcare providers has had a big impact on the job market. Just in downtown alone, Spectrum Health has added hundreds of thousands of square feet, a new children’s hospital, a new cancer pavilion, new research space, and new partnerships with neighbors at the Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Valley State University, and Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (also growing in their own right). According to Spectrum Health, they’ve brought on approximately 3764 new hires since fiscal year 2010 and currently have 625 job openings system-wide that they are looking to fill. Hopefully, they’ve hired more HR people.
Founders Brewing Company
West Michigan’s largest brewing company has been going gangbusters. Its most recent $6.6 Million, 50,000-square-foot expansion in the Heartside District gives it the brewing capacity to produce 150,000 barrels. Founders now employs nearly 100 people. That’s quite a jump from the 18 employees and 5,000 barrels they put out when they first moved to Grandville Avenue in 2007.
Open Systems Technologies
This technology company that specializes in IT managed services, application development, IT security, cloud development and other tech solutions has hit its stride. In 2009, its revenue was $34 Million. They hit $68 Million in 2011, and are on track to grow to $80 Million for 2012. They recently moved into new digs on the Westside of Grand Rapids, and according to Mike Lomonaco of OST, now have 103 employees and 55 contractors. OST also currently has eight openings in Grand Rapids (as well as one in Minnesota and one in Southeast Michigan).
Farmers Insurance
Put three Meijer stores together and that’s how much space Farmers Insurance’s most recent expansion added. In 2011, they opened their new $84 Million, 364,000-square-foot call processing center and distribution facility in Caledonia Township. At last check, they had hired over 500 new people in 2011, with the goal of hiring 1100 more in Grand Rapids and throughout Michigan.
Applied Imaging
Since 2009, this printing solutions company has grown by 38 people, has openings for 10 more, and was named one of Michigan’s 50 “Companies To Watch” for growth. And who said print was dying?
Plasan Carbon Composites
The plant manager at this automotive supplier considers what they do to be more “artwork” than manufacturing. It might be part of the reason why they’ve added almost 50 jobs in 2012 with plans to add another 200 in 2013.
Obviously, this is just a small snapshot of the large and small companies that are growing in the area. And I’m sure there are still a lot of people who are unemployed or underemployed in Grand Rapid as well.
But back to the original question about
Fast Company. Maybe the sights aren’t being set high enough. With all of these new jobs being added, instead of asking how Grand Rapids can snag the COVER, perhaps someone should be asking how Grand Rapids can actually snag
Fast Company.
*Editors note: the Labor Force (those working + those seeking employment + those on unemployment) was virtually unchanged in those two years. So in essence, it wasn’t due to a massive number of people running out of unemployment benefits.
Jeff Hill is the Publisher of Rapid Growth Media, and holds a degree in Communications and Economics from Western Michigan University.