This week’s fifth annual assessment by the Bloomington Economic Development Corp. on the state of the local economy — usually a look back at the recent past on a number of standard measures such as employment, home sales and such — was overtaken this time by big breaking news.
The report and luncheon, aimed at the region’s business community, followed by only hours the announcement that IU Health Bloomington Hospital would be moving to the east side of the Indiana University campus.
And of course, Lynn Coyne, president of the economic development corporation and also a hospital board member, noted the news in a special announcement that preceded the standard charts, graphs and expert comment.
“I think it’s (the hospital move and agreement with IU to create a regional medical and health education center) an enormous economic development opportunity for Bloomington — Monroe County and the city — that will enable all kinds of employment,” he said.
After that large ripple of news made it through the audience of local and regional business people and politicians, the expected charts and numbers spilled out, explained along the way by the experts.
The general message wasn’t much changed from recent years. The region’s economy maintains its slow but steady progress, with Monroe County — the region’s economic driver — usually leading the way.
Presenter Jerry Conover, director of the Indiana Business Research Center at the IU Kelley School of Business, showed a graph that contrasted employment in the Bloomington metro area with statewide numbers since 2005. It showed a huge dip in state employment resulting from the 2007-09 recession. Bloomington’s dipped as well, but much less steeply, a reflection of the economic stability a large university provides for its region.
© 2024 HeraldTimesOnline, Bloomington, IN