GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On Thursday morning, The Right Place GR gave its annual economic outlook, including its first ever state of the region report.
"Given everything we've gone through over the last two years, Greater Grand Rapids has performed quite well," says Randy Thelen, President and CEO of The Right Place.
While the area continues to bounce back from a loss in workers during the pandemic, experts say West Michigan is outperforming other parts of the state.
The Right Place reports after the area lost 22,500 workers during the pandemic, it has already recovered even more in return with 23,000.
"Our recovery here has been very good, but now you're sort of reaching your speed limit," says Don Grimes, Regional Economic Specialist at the University of Michigan. "You're hitting your speed bump of not having people."
As worker shortages continue across the country, experts say West Michigan is no different, and say a raise in wages may become necessary.
Local tech company Atomic Object says they've done just that with success.
"What we've done is change how we've thought about compensation in a way that allows us to retain the talent and be competitive in the market," says Jeff Williams, managing partner for Atomic Object.
The Right Place reports Greater Grand Rapids had a slower than average recovery of jobs. At -3.8%, the region is performing better than the state average (-4.5%) from 2019 to 2022. That number, however, is slightly below the national average of -1.8% from 2019-2022.
In the end, experts say West Michigan is on the right track economically moving forward.
"We expect this area to prosper pretty well and hold up pretty well through this time," says Grimes.
You can read the entire state of the region report here.
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