Here are a few updates to end your week:
Talent Pipeline Management: You might remember that we had a kickoff meeting for our Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) initiative back in May. TPM is an employer-centered process for understanding workforce challenges and using data to improve outcomes. We hosted about 20 different companies in a few different industries to explain TPM and get buy-in to join the program. Over the summer, we worked to get commitment, and on Wednesday of this week, we had our official launch meeting for our Manufacturing and Logistics TPM Sector Partnership. Kim Kuchenbrod, a TPM expert provided to Greater Peoria at no cost by Illinois DCEO, helped to host a hybrid meeting to lay out next steps to twelve companies who are ready to jump in. Kim, her team, and GPEDC will be working to lead the partnership through the six TPM strategies over the next few months. We also hope to build a sector partnership around healthcare companies that will launch later this fall. My thanks to Illinois DCEO for selecting Greater Peoria for this pilot.
Mystery Solved? Last week, I noted the strange drop in jobs in the Peoria MSA between June and July: a decrease in 1600 “government” jobs. Thanks to my friends at CareerLink, I tracked down the guy at IDES responsible for preparing these reports and asked him what the deal was with this category. And he answered me! He explained that the jobs numbers come from the national Current Employment Statistics Survey. He looked at our numbers and said this: “The Government Series is an aggregate of Federal, State, and Local government. So, looking at those three series, Fed and State were flat over-the-month (OTM), and Local government was down -1,600 OTM. Local Government breaks out further to the Local Government Educational Services, which is where the -1,600 occurred. This series includes local school districts and community colleges. They usually have seasonal drops during summer breaks, which probably accounted for the decline. This July drop is larger than in previous years; however, some schools get out for June, and others go into July. It is not always consistent which month, and that can cause either month to have larger or smaller seasonal declines.” I wonder if the change in the calendar for Peoria Public Schools (District 150) had some impact on the numbers. Still, I’m happy to have a pretty good clue, and it should also mean a rebound in August as school is largely back in session.
Happy 48th Birthday! It was an honor to join Ed and Larry Tangel and the Enercon family of employees to help celebrate their 48th birthday on Thursday. Enercon is an East Peoria-based company that provides custom power solutions across a variety of industries. Maybe the coolest among their clients is the US Army. Enercon developed the power units behind the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense – Prime Power Unit (THAAD-PPU), a system that detects, tracks, and discriminates against incoming ballistic missiles. The celebration included recognizing a few employees who had worked at Enercon for over 40 years and remarks by Rep. Darin LaHood, who was presented an award by Enercon recognizing his support of small businesses in Central Illinois. Happy birthday, Enercon!
Strategy Reports: If it is the first week of the month, I made the staff prepare their strategy reports for the month before. You can read them here.
Have a great weekend.
Chris