Jobs Now!, a private and public initiative to support economic growth in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley, reported solid progress toward its aggressive five-year goals in its annual report June 20.
Independent consultant Dr. Sharon Younger, president of Younger Associates, told Jobs Now!investors that during the last three years, the region created 20,511 net new jobs. That is 112% of the anticipated achievement rate at this point in the program. The five-year goal is 35,000 net new jobs.
In the area of non-residential capital investment, Younger said the InnovationValley performed better than all of the other metro areas in Tennessee. The area has attracted $1.84 billion in the past three years - 141% of the progress anticipated to date. "Barring some unforeseen circumstance, you are well on your way to your five-year goal of $2.5 billion in capital investment," she said.
A $5,000 increase in earnings per job is the third Jobs Now! goal. Younger said federal data in this category is not yet available for 2005, but during 2003 and 2004, the region saw an increase of $2,840 in average earnings per job, which is ahead of the 2005 goal.
On Monday, Expansion Management magazine announced that metro Knoxville earned Five Star status for its quality of life. That puts it in the top 20 percent of all 364 metro areas for its composite score in several categories, including affordable housing, education, commercial air access and a strong job market. Another factor was the region's overall standard of living, which is a composite of average income, tax rates and cost of living. The InnovationValley was the only region in Tennessee to earn the honor. This comes on the heels of an announcement by Forbes magazine ranking metro Knoxville as the hottest mid-sized city in America for business.
Younger said the InnovationValley's momentum is impressive. But she also sounded several cautionary notes. "The first five-year goals are ambitious, so the region must continue to work together for economic progress and well into the future," she said. "The Jobs Now! partners must continue well beyond that to support the growth of good jobs, capital investment and earnings per job if the region is going to prosper."
Jobs Now! Executive Director Mike Harvey said that a number of factors will also determine how well this region and the entire country fares in the future. "The regional economy is performing extraordinarily well considering some of the internal and external pressures we've been under. Things like inflation, tightening credit, global competition and geopolitical concerns are coming at us from the outside. Internally, we always need to be cognizant of things like our property portfolio, workforce and the environment.
Harvey says that the Jobs Now! partners are in the business of finding more opportunities and converting those opportunities into successes. "We have to adjust our strategies to find opportunities as they grow scarcer. And we have to address the factors that we can influence to stay on track. As impressive as the Jobs Now! numbers are at this point, they are just part of a process, they are not end points. They indicate that we are serious about our economic future. The recent positive national rankings show that business decision makers know we're in the game to stay."
Jobs Now! is supported by more than 170 private and public investors. The partner organizations include the East Tennessee Economic Development Agency (ETEDA), the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership (KACP) and the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership (OREP). These partners also rely upon close interaction with local and county officials, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development and TVA.
