Some GPEDC updates to end your week:
June Unemployment Numbers: Well, this is a nice report to see. The June unemployment numbers showed a pretty dramatic jump from May. (I recognize that I’ve mentioned before not to pay attention to month-to-month swings, but it’s nice to see positive jumps.) The labor force shot up by nearly 4,000 to 182,307. Employed persons grew even more, increasing about 4,500 to 173,544. The report also showed nearly 1,000 less people reporting as “unemployed” between the two months. The resulting unemployment rate plummeted from 5.4% in May to 4.8% in June, just a tick above the state’s rate of 4.7%. If you remember, I noted a discrepancy between the “jobs report” and the “unemployment report” over the last few months, where they were seemingly going in two different directions. I’ll take a closer look at the June jobs report next week and hope they’ve synced up a bit. Updated graph at the DataHub.
New Investor: We are pleased to have Terracon join the Greater Peoria EDC family of investor members. Terracon is a 100% employee-owned consulting engineering firm, specializing in environmental, facilities, geotechnical, and materials services. Terracon currently has more than 5,000 employees in more than 175 locations, serving all 50 states nationwide. They are interested in growing their practice in the Peoria area because of the concentration of our engineering and construction firms. If anyone is interested in learning more about their services, I’d be happy to connect you with their business development staff.
Defense Manufacturing Community: Last week GPEDC and our Illinois Defense Network partners and collaborators finalized and submitted Illinois Defense Manufacturing Consortium’s (IDMC) application for designation as a Defense Manufacturing Community. The FY2022 $30M Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program is designed to support long-term community investments that strengthen national security, innovation and expand the capabilities of the defense manufacturing industrial ecosystem. IDMC’s application provides a comprehensive approach to address US Department of Defense critical needs within Illinois’ predominant castings and forgings sectors as well as the energy storage research and battery component manufacturing sectors. In August, the Defense Department will announce applicants who received designation as a Defense Manufacturing Community and invite them to submit up to a $5M grant application for project implementation strategy.
Intern Mixer: We had a nice turnout of about 35 summer interns at a welcome luncheon at Warehouse on State this week. As part of the GP2030 Talent Attraction Initiative, we were hoping to share a bit more information about our region’s great things. Many interns come from outside the region to spend their summers with us. We hope they will have a better understanding of what our community has to offer if they get an offer from their companies. My thanks to Amy McCoy of the Pekin Chamber of Commerce for taking the lead on this, along with Kari and David of GPEDC and Kelly at the CEO Council.
Have a great weekend.
Chris