Tag: Blog

Tourism’s Substantial Economic Impact

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By: Joe Timbrook
COO

Through the eyes of our visitors to the Radius Region the word “tourism” stirs visions of a favorite family getaway destination, a picturesque hiking adventure through rolling hills or that perfect anniversary dinner at a winery, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
But through the fine-tuned lens of an economist, tourism can be seen much differently. It is viewed as a jobs creator, a tax revenue generator and most importantly as a powerful industry that helps drive the economy in our region.
According to a newly released study by market research firm Rockport Analytics, tourism spending in our region continues to grow—increasing by $11.8 million from the previous year.
The study compared tourism data during a two-year period for Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange and Washington counties and includes jobs in the industry directly supporting our visitors such as hotel accommodations, as well as in supply chain sectors like transportation.
Let’s take a look at the numbers from Rockport:

$283.4 million in tourism spending, which has a $206.2 million in lasting economic impact to an eight-county, mostly rural region in southern Indiana.  This visitor spending has a significant impact on lodging, transportation, shopping, food & beverage and entertainment businesses in every city and town as evidenced by the following:

  • $73.8M spent on food & beverage or 26.0% of total tourism spending (vs. state 27.9%)
  • $70.2M spent on lodging or 24.8% of total tourism spending (vs. state 16.4%)
  • $67.6M spent on shopping or 23.9% of total tourism spending (vs. state 22.1%)
  • $40.7M spent on transportation or 14.4% of total tourism spending (vs. state 16.4%)
  • $31.1M spent on entertainment & recreation or 11.0% of total tourism spending (vs. state 18.0%)

73% of every dollar spent on tourism in the Radius Region stays in the region. 

5,093 tourism-related jobs in an area with a workforce of 106,375 adults (or 4.8% of the total) providing wages totaling $121.3 million. These payroll dollars support jobs of nearly every type; from stores to gas stations to tourist attractions to hotels and restaurants.  Residents have jobs because visitors spend their money here.  One out of every 20 workers in the region is employed because of the tourism industry.  Studies show that those individuals who start out working in the hospitality industry come to enjoy significant salary growth over time—better than the average regional or national salary.

Tourism spending results in $60.3 million in tax revenue generated region-wide.  Without this federal, state and local impact, each regional household would have to pay an additional $618 annually in taxes.  A portion of the local tax collection is used for the development of tourism initiatives and investments in each county. In addition, revenue collected from tourism supports the equivalent of 3,777 public school students in the region.

Tourism is the #7 industry in the region.  In a state that is heavily invested in manufacturing and technology, tourism ranks higher in the Radius Region as a top industry coming in at #7 compared to the tourism industry for the state of Indiana, which ranks at  #10. Industries that have higher rankings by total employment are manufacturing, government, health and social services, retail/accommodations/food and beverage and construction.
The Radius Region is home to the magnificent French Lick Resort and the West Baden Hotel, which is a top destination in the United States for visitors.  The rest of the area is some of the most beautiful terrain in the nation and is known as the “garden spot of the Midwest.”  Other interesting destinations include Patoka Lake Reservoir, Hoosier National Forest and multiple state parks and recreations sites.  It includes our one-of-a-kind limestone heritage, a thriving Amish community, and much more.
It is easy to see how tourism is a thriving industry. And now, with the regional tourism industry’s economic impact in full focus, the next angle we look at is: How do we maximize it?
We work hard to create the experience and feeling that we want every visitor to have when they spend time in our region.  The same feeling we have because we live here and love it.
Look for information regarding “A Promise for Southern Indiana,” a new regional tourism initiative throughout 2018.

Joe Timbrook, COO

 

U. S. Air Force Chief of Staff Tours Crane Innovation

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By: Matt Craig
Director of Crane Community Support

Acknowledgment of Crane’s prowess in innovation and military technology reached new heights this week with a visit from General David Goldfein, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force. Gen. Goldfein is the highest-ranking officer in the Air Force and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

U.S. Senators Joe Donnelly and Todd Young, and Congressman Trey Hollingsworth hosted Gen. Goldfein Jan.8 on his first ever visit to Crane for tours of several laboratories and a regional stakeholder luncheon. The visit signifies an important opportunity for Crane to showcase its work, and with its continually increasing support of U.S. Air Force programs; there is the increasing potential for an Air Force presence at Crane.

Technology developed at Crane serves every branch of the U.S. Military and its programs provide the platforms to answer some of the most critical issues facing national security today, including those related to air, ground and submarine-launched missiles and electronic warfare, which is essential in removing the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) faced by our men and women in combat. During the visit General Godfein commented, that Crane should “never underestimate the importance of its culture of innovation.”

The lunch program for Gen. Goldfein focused on “innovation ecosystems,” which is Crane’s proven methodology to capitalize on our state’s assets to assist in the development of new technology and initiatives. Through state and regional partnerships, Crane brings together thought leaders from a broad spectrum of public and private sector experts, state defense agencies, universities, and regional partners such as Radius Indiana, Regional Opportunity Initiatives, and the newly formed, Applied Research Institute.

This regional approach means that not only are the best and brightest minds at work to solve some of our nation’s greatest challenges, but that there is a wide range of resources and organizations at work to ensure Crane has the infrastructure, workforce and support it needs to complete its missions. This network of partners has helped create the now nationally known innovation culture that exists right here in Southern Indiana, and has demonstrated it is committed strengthening the ecosystem.

Radius Indiana applauds the efforts of those at Crane and all of the regional stakeholders who made Gen. Goldfein’s visit a success–our region was again able to shine in a national spotlight and reinforce Crane’s value, which helps keep this important asset a thriving part of our local economy.

Matt Craig, Director of Crane Community Support

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Increasing Labor Participation in the Region

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By Stacy Burris
Director of Community Development
As recent headlines have mentioned, Indiana is nearing its lowest unemployment rate ever. In fact, according to Chmura Economics 2017Q4 data, the State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 4.0 percent which is below the national rate of 4.4 percent. The Radius region’s 4.2 percent unemployment rate is also lower than the State’s. One year earlier, for comparison, in October 2016, the unemployment rate in the Radius region was 4.6 percent. This means that businesses must work hard at finding employees to fill jobs. And one Southern Indiana business giant, Cook Group, is taking an innovative approach to doing so.

With the Great Recession ending more than eight years ago, the national unemployment rate and, subsequently, Indiana and the Radius region’s rate has since declined slowly. Does this decline indicate the overall economic health of the State and Radius region? The answer is, sort of. Unemployment is a difficult concept to define and Economists use it as only a piece of the economy puzzle.

The labor force classifies people as either employed or unemployed. Employed means people worked an hour or more as a paid employee or 15 hours or more as an unpaid worker in a family-owned business or farm. Unemployed refers to those 16 years or older who weren’t employed, but were available for work and actively looked for a job within the past four weeks.

Two key definitions to remember are the unemployment and labor participation rates. The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force actively looking for work, which in the State and the region is low. The labor force participation rate, however, is defined as how many people are working as a percentage of the population available to work.

The participation rate is an important metric to use when analyzing economic data because it reflects the number of people who are actively participating in the workforce. People not included in the rate either do not want to work or can’t work. They may be students, homemakers, or retired. The national labor force participation rate is 62.7 percent while Indiana’s rate is slightly higher at 63.9 percent and the Radius region’s rate is slightly lower at 61.2 percent.

The labor force participation rate has steadily declined along with the unemployment rate, which has puzzled economists. This points to fewer people wanting to work, not to fewer jobs.

As economic developers, we want to boost the amount of people that participate in the labor force to offer area businesses a workforce. Partners of Radius Indiana have taken steps to combat the declining participation rates. Cook Group has initiated My Cook Pathways, to encourage adults needing an Indiana High School Equivalency Diploma to earn one. In fact, if you are a current or future employee at Cook, you can earn your Indiana High School Equivalency Diploma while working at Cook part time. The program allows you to work for 28 hours a week in a position that does not require a high school diploma and take classes for 12 hours a week to prepare for the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC). When you pass the TASC and demonstrate success in your part-time role, Cook will offer a full-time position in Production, Quality Control, Packaging, or Warehousing.

Cook also pays for the TASC and provides 401(k) and quarterly bonus benefits while you are working part-time.

Not only does this unique and successful program increase our region’s educational attainment but it helps to pull in those people who are otherwise not participating in the labor force.

Stacy Burris, Radius Indiana Director of Community Development

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Investment Keeps Ammunition Activity Moving Forward

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By Matt Craig, Radius Indiana director of Crane Community Support
Crane Army Ammunition Activity is the stalwart at Naval Support Activity Crane. Long before the creation

 

of Radius Indiana, the economic development partnership working to expand, retain and attract business in southern Indiana, Crane was providing jobs and growing the economy in our region. When Crane was commissioned in 1941, its original directive was to serve as an ammunition production facility and depot — manufacturing, storing and repairing ammunition to the front lines during World War II.
Seventy-five years later, this vital function continues at Crane Army Ammunition Activity, and the Activity is evolving to meet the needs of today’s warfighters. The sophistication of current operations is yet another example of the advanced manufacturing capabilities we are known for in the Radius Indiana region. Technology has advanced, and we are witnessing the Activity keeping pace with other manufacturing facilities in our region.

The Activity employs more than 800 ordnance production, logistic and transportation experts and includes more than 200 production buildings and 1,800 ammunition storage buildings. In 2016, Crane Army Ammunition Activity invested $6 million in equipment and more than $16 million in facility improvements.

Part of the investment comes through Crane Army Ammunition Activity’s active participating in the Army’s Logistics Modernization Program, which is the Army’s core initiative to replace the largest, most important national-level logistics systems. The supply chain, maintenance, repair and execution solution adds a wide variety of capabilities ranging from shop floor automation to reducing data entry time, and improving visibility of material receipt and shipment performance metrics. Equipment upgrades have also been a large part of the improvements realized through the modernization program. In the past year, Crane Army Ammunition Activity invested nearly $500,000 in advanced manufacturing pieces including an AKS Water Jet and Hurco Vertical Machining Center. These high-tech machines give the Activity enhanced capabilities in metal fabrication and show the Activity’s commitment to providing the best service to Army missions worldwide.

Crane Army Ammunition Activity’s quality control testing facility, originally built in 1945, has also undergone a total transformation. Completed in summer 2016, renovations focused not only on operations needed for missions support but improved working conditions. The $3.3 million in upgrades included redesigning facility layout, lightning protection systems, energy improvements, and office and break room renovations for a quality work environment. The building, once deemed as one of the worst in the entire Army, is now an advanced facility that is safer for equipment and operations and a dramatically better workspace for employees.

Radius Indiana applauds Crane Army Ammunition Activity’s continued investment in its operations, facilities and workforce as it perpetuates its legacy of excellence in serving or nation and providing economic vitality for our region.

Our Region Boosts the Earning Potential for Future Generations

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By Jeff Quyle, Radius Indiana President and CEO

The Radius Indiana region is home to numerous businesses, a beautiful landscape as well as a culture and mindset that values personal responsibility and hard work. That mindset is an advantage to the businesses in our eight-county region, which includes Washington, Crawford, Dubois, Orange, Martin, Daviess, Greene and Lawrence counties. The labor force in our communities is productive – and good for business – and it turns out that recent research shows that the good work ethic of our region is just as good for our folks themselves. While we all know that intuitively, it’s good to read a study that backs up the facts.

In a study titled “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergeneration Mobility: Childhood Exposure Effects and County-level Estimates,” published in 2015, Harvard economists looked at the types of communities that offer upward mobility for children. They studied the movements of families with children from high-poverty neighborhoods to neighborhoods with less poverty. Subsequently, the New York Times applied the study’s findings to statistics for every county in the U.S., to see which counties had the right circumstances and cultures that allow children to earn more income than their parents, which is the American Dream after all.

The study found that for each year a child is exposed to positive surroundings it helps increase his or her chances for success. And on a county-by-county basis, every county in the Radius region was statistically shown to deliver increased chances for financial improvements for those raised in our region.

For example, a girl who grows up in an average income family in Orange County would have an average future income better than girls who grow up in 69 percent of other counties in the U.S. As the young woman enters the workforce she is likely to make an additional $1,890 per year in income, because she had been shaped by Orange County’s environment.

Particularly outstanding is the anticipated value of growing up in Dubois County. A boy who grows up in an underprivileged family in Dubois County is expected to earn more than another child raised in 96 percent of all counties in the U.S, which translates to $5,960 more in yearly income.

And according to the projections, every Radius county is a positive place for children to grow up, in terms of giving them an advantage in their future earning potential—our communities are creating positive futures for our children.

What kinds of factors seem to be important to helping children grow up better prepared to work in the world? Good schools are one factor, of course. Also factoring in are lower rates of violent crime, higher percentages of two-parent households and less segregation by income and race. These are all strengths of the Radius region.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough jobs in the region to keep our future workforce employed; many of our youth leave our counties when they reach young adulthood. Our Radius population includes only 7.6 percent of residents who are between the ages of 18 and 24. The state of Indiana population overall, for that same age range, is 10 percent.  And among residents who are ages 25 to 34, Radius has only 11.2 percent, while the state population is 12.8 percent, and the national average is 13.3 percent. These numbers show that our youth do not stay in our region when they become young adults.

Along with your county’s local economic development office, Radius Indiana works to bring new jobs to the region. We want our youth to have opportunities to stay in our region to live and to work, if they so choose. We are committed to helping our existing businesses grow and prosper, so they may hire more of our local residents, and we also work to persuade new companies to come to the Radius region to bring jobs that can be filled by the types of people who will be productive workers and lifelong residents of our communities.

We thank you for your continued support of your local economic development strategies and initiatives. It takes long-term investment in infrastructure, education and quality of place to build communities that are as good as those in our region for raising families, and we know these types of investments have incredible returns.