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Campaign Aside, Employment Increasing By Marvin E. Strong Jr., Guest Columnist The Kentucky Post
September 10, 2003
During a campaign year, it is not unusual for candidates, editorialists and pundits to throw out statistics in an effort to draw attention or create excitement about an issue.
It is actually encouraging to hear economic development as a focus of this year's race for governor. The health of the Kentucky economy is important to our Commonwealth and our communities. Kentuckians want and need good paying jobs, and it takes willing investment by private companies to make that happen. The work of economic development is particularly challenging during a slow national economy, but that just makes it more critical to sustain the Cabinet's efforts.
Unfortunately, the desire to attract the interest and attention of supporters and voters has led to a lot of statements about what is "good" or "bad" about Kentucky's economy, usually followed by a simplistic explanation of what will "fix" the situation.
Some of these election-year discussions have mentioned both the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and, in particular, the role of the Kentucky Economic Development Partnership Board. For the last twelve years, the Partnership Board has served an essential role in directing the state's economic development programs, providing continuity of leadership and program guidance from a perspective based more on business realities than pure political priorities.
The partnership board was created by Kentucky statute as a true public-private partnership. The board is chaired by the governor and includes the secretaries of the state's Finance & Administration, Natural Resources & Environmental Protection, Tourism Development, and Economic Development cabinets. Eight private sector members are appointed to staggered terms to represent a variety of business sectors from all across Kentucky. This structure allows the Board to stay mindful of its duties to the Commonwealth while maintaining a business-like approach in its dealings with existing and prospective Kentucky companies.
At the core of economic development activity are the decisions made by private sector businesses on what products to make or services to provide, what level of capital investment and employment is required to support that activity, and where best to locate the business activity.
While there are significant public sector decisions and investments required to support business functions -- roads, water and sewer infrastructure, employee education and training, tax and regulatory policies -- economic development is not a purely political activity. The partnership board's ability to maintain a strong balance of these private and public sector roles has ensured continuity in cabinet leadership and strengthened the professional economic development expertise of cabinet staff.
For those who prefer more objective evidence of the value of the partnership board, it is helpful to review the labor force and employment statistics for Kentucky, for both the 12 years before the board's creation and the 12 years since. Figures from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics paint an interesting picture of Kentucky's economic performance for the last 20-plus years.
For the total 12-year period before the creation of the partnership board, the Kentucky labor force increased by 120,871, or 7.4 percent, and total employment increased by 90,394, or 5.9 percent. The 12 years since the board's creation have seen even greater results for Kentucky: a labor force increase of 240,738, or 13.7 percent, with total employment increasing by 250,411 or 15.4 percent.
These significant differences in economic advancement in Kentucky also stand up in comparison to the national experience for the same periods. From 1979 to 1991, Kentucky's 5.9 percent increase in total employment was well behind the nation's total employment growth rate of 17.6 percent. For the later 1992-2003 period, Kentucky's growth of 15.4 percent is more in line with the total U. S. employment growth of 16.5 percent. These numbers demonstrate that significant economic strides have been made over the last 12 years, an achievement that should not be undone by current campaign rhetoric.
In its strategic planning for the Economic Development Cabinet, the partnership board benchmarks the effectiveness of its work by measuring Kentucky's economic progress in relation to national averages. While there is still much work to do in growing Kentucky's economy to an even stronger level, the results obtained over the last 12 years prove the worth of the partnership board and the public-private shared effort that drives our economic development efforts.
Marvin E. Strong Jr. is secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.
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