ANDERSON — It will be at least another decade before Anderson’s employment levels will return to its pre-recession state, according to a recent national report.
According to the report released Monday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Anderson reached that peak in 2005 and has lost 4,300 since then with a decline of 9.6 percent in employment. Anderson was one of five Indiana metropolitan areas with the grimmest of forecasts — a return to peak coming beyond 2021. The other four were Muncie, Kokomo, Elkhart-Goshen and South Bend-Mishawaka.
Anderson Mayor Kris Ockomon said he finds it hard to believe that prediction is accurate.
“We are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We are starting to see some improvements. Yes, they are very, very slow coming, but we are seeing it nonetheless.”
Ockomon said the prediction could be possible, but it seems like an “awful long time.” He said as the community continues to see the momentum he says it has seen in the last three and a half years, then beyond 2021 is too far out.
“I don’t think we are going to bounce right back in the next couple of years,” Ockomon said. “But we do see improvement. We are seeing some positive changes. Is it fast enough for us? No. We would like to see it happen tomorrow, but I know that is not going to happen.”
Republican mayoral candidate Kevin Smith said the study is a clear measure that Ockomon took a far different direction when it came to economic development than Smith had done when in office.
“I see such a lack of expertise and long-range understanding from the current team that my fear is that we will follow this projection stated in the report,” Smith said. “But I do wholeheartedly believe we can break that mold if we get the right people in the right places. We can replicate the success we had before.”
He said Anderson shouldn’t see itself as a “standalone entity” and should try to develop a closer economic relationship with metropolitan Indianapolis, which, in the report, is predicted to return to pre-recession numbers by 2013.
“This study is a judgment on place and time,” Smith said. “Had this been measured four years ago I think there would be an obviously different outcome. When we left office the new job creation basically came to a stunning halt and that had everything to do with recruiting people to work with our business — the city business — based on skills, abilities, professionalism and talents, the opposite of the friends and family plan.”
Ockomon pointed to several positive developments the city has seen over his term in office and said there are more exciting announcements coming.
“We are doing a good job seeing leads through the Corporation for Economic Development and Anderson’s Economic Development Department,” he said. “Things are looking up — we have some great projects in the hopper right now. We are hopefully optimistic to say it best.”
The study pointed out that of the 363 metro areas looked at, 75 are expected to have double-digit unemployment rates by December. Anderson’s unemployment rate in 2010 was 11.4 percent but is predicted to drop to 9.1 percent by the end of 2011. The prediction for 2013 is 8.7 percent with a drop of 2.7 percent over the period.
Anderson Economic Development Director Linda Dawson said she finds parts of the study to be accurate but others not as much.
“These particular studies go by figures that are usually reported during census taking and do not take into consideration anything that has been developing in your area,” she said. “They would not have any reflection on the Flagship Enterprise Center and the successful projects we’ve had. They wouldn’t be a reflection of the favorable business climate that exists in central Indiana, our interstate system, the cost of doing business in Anderson and the availability of fully developed property.”
Dawson said the 2021 prediction is a little misleading because the things that will help a region crawl out of a recession aren’t given consideration.
She said the city will continue the national and global marketing program and other tactics to help encourage companies to expand and relocate in Anderson.
As a lifelong resident of Anderson, Rob Sparks, executive director for the Corporation for Economic Development, has seen the number of jobs the area has lost over the last three decades. Many, he said, were lost to automation or the elimination of processes no longer required. Some were shipped out to lower-paying pools.
“That is a huge hole to try to climb out of,” Sparks said. “But I think it is hard to predict the future. And it is important to remember that every gain is important.”
He said the CED and other economic development groups in the area continue to market the community to a wide spectrum of companies with the goal of providing not only a lot of jobs but a diverse community of companies to the area.
“But what I think we can do to help these numbers is for the community of people seeking employment to reach out and seek additional training and computer skills,” Sparks said. “Without a doubt the jobs of the future will require a higher skill set than those of the past.”
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