Best Places: It was great to see Peoria ranked in the top 25 best cities to live in the Midwest (#24, to be exact, but #1in our hearts). The rankings are put together by Livability.com, a Franklin, TN, media company that highlights the best small to mid-sized cities and what makes them great places to live, work, and visit. The data-driven ranking was created using information collected from Livability’s annual ranking of the Top 100 Best Places to Live, which recognizes the best small and mid-sized communities across the U.S. We scored especially well in the housing and cost of living, transportation, and amenities categories. It’s always nice to be recognized for what we know to be true! You can read the whole report here.
Strategic Manufacturing Group: This week, Jeffrey and the Workforce Solutions team invited the Strategic Manufacturing Group (SMG) to meet at Distillery Labs. Primary topics were connecting with the group in preparation for CareerSpark and the Discover Manufacturing Expo. There was a lot of great discussion from manufacturing employers and local teachers about developing ways to engage students and build our talent pipeline through experiences and opportunities to build awareness of careers in manufacturing. We had over 30 attendees for this month’s meeting and there were several first-timers who joined and brought fresh perspectives to the group. The SMG co-chairs the Manufacturing zone at CareerSpark (Oct. 1 & 2) and coordinates the tours, lunch & learn, and job fair that makes up the Discover Manufacturing Expo happening October 23 & 24. This year’s lunch and learn will happen at ICC and at Federal Companies’ facility. If you want to join this group, please connect with Jeffrey (or me).
AgTech Connect: The next AgTech Connect meeting will be held at Distillery Labs on September 17 from 10 am – 11:30 am. This quarterly meeting brings together innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders in the AgTech sector to spark collaboration, promote sustainable growth, and drive regional economic opportunity. Presentations include Dr. Jim Lowe of the Center for Veterinary Innovation and Jason Yordy of TurkeyTrac and EarlyBird Nutrition. Register here.
Career & Technical Ed: The Illinois College & Career Success Network’s Career & Technical Education (CTE) Dashboard has the 2023 CTE Enrollment data available and our region – Greater Peoria Pathways, a Leadership Community in the state – has some of the highest enrollment rates for CTE programs across all Career Clusters. Last year, 65.7% of all high school students in our region participated in at least one CTE course – compared to the Illinois state average at 47%, and 31.9% of students were “concentrators” in their Career Cluster of choice. CTE programs in Illinois provide instruction for careers in high-wage, high-skill, and in-demand occupations. A special nod to our friends at Roanoke-Benson CUSD 60, Brimfield CUSD 309, and Delavan CUSD 703 – each district had at least 70% of students enrolled as CTE concentrators in their program of choice! Participation in the career clusters for Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources, Architecture & Construction, Manufacturing, and Logistics all saw a significant increase in student participation from the previous year.
July Employment Numbers: The local July employment and jobs report dropped a few weeks ago, and we’ve updated our data visualization—some good news on the employment side. Between June and July, we saw some big increases. The number of employed persons jumped by just under 1100 between those two months, and the labor force increased by over 3,000. More people back in the labor pool caused a slight uptick in the unemployment rate, up from 6.0% to 6.2% (never bad when more people are reporting as employed). The jobs side of the numbers was confusingly bad. I think I’ve said this before, but I truly despise this report and have never really figured out how it’s constructed (and I’ve asked!) July looks to have 1500 less jobs than June. But when you look at the individual categories, you’ll see that 1300 of those “job losses” are in the “Government” category. Can you think of any mass layoffs in the government last month? For whatever reason, this is always the most volatile category within the job report.
Volunteer for Career Spark! We are still looking for volunteers for Career Spark, central Illinois’s largest career exploration initiative. This year, it’s being held at the Peoria Civic Center on October 1 and 2. We need your help to make it happen. Volunteers make this whole thing go! Volunteers can sign up now to represent their industry, assist with greeting buses, guide students between zones, monitor zone entrances and exits, and deliver volunteer lunches. Sign up here.
Strategy Reports: Want to know more about the work that GPEDC has been up to? Check out our August strategy reports here.
Have a great weekend.
Chris