How Clermont County Lures Jobs
July 5, 2009
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If you have some idea about what economic developers do, you would likely expect that they would be responsible for attracting, creating, retaining, and expanding two things: businesses and jobs. One local area is expanding the traditional approach by considering a broad range of economic development activities. The Economic Development Corporation of Clermont County (ED3C), headed by Steve Wharton and assisted by a group of community advisors, devised a plan with a scope that is much bigger than the traditional role of economic developers. They included three additional goals: to design transportation infrastructure, to develop a workforce with needed skills, and to create places in which this workforce would want to live and work.
ED3C and their advisors’ first step was a standard one: they commissioned an assessment of their own strengths as a county. However, demonstrating their forward‐thinking approach, they also studied the strengths of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. As Clermont County and the Cincinnati metropolitan area connections were identified, ED3C’s economic development plans were clarified and supported. The importance of transportation was clear. The county is connected socially and economically to the metropolitan area, and efficiently moving people and products would be critical to utilizing and enhancing those connections.
The next critical step was to identify industries that match the strengths of both the county and the region, and to come up with a way to attract businesses in these industries. Once again, ED3C went beyond the traditional considerations by investigating the workforce needs of these industries. This information has become an important consideration in partnering with educational systems in order to address those needs. ED3C hopes this partnership will yield progress in dropout prevention, improve training in skilled occupations, expand access to higher education and retraining of adults. The Economic Development Corporation of Clermont County clearly understands the fact that in order to stay competitive as a region, they must develop necessary skills of their current and future workforce.
Another example of a fresh approach to economic development is to focus on creating an environment that is attractive to the kind of residents who can bring knowledge, innovation and creativity to the workplace. Of course, pleasant residential opportunities are important, as are entertainment, recreation and social choices that actively engage a diverse group of citizens. The theory is: when people move to an area they consider attractive, employers and jobs will follow. This new vision of economic development is based on the idea that successful regions no longer depend mainly on natural resources or low‐cost manufacturing, but on the intellectual and creative abilities of their people. Smooth and timely implementation of the plans of economic developers is not a guarantee of desired results, but thorough planning is essential. We won’t know for several years whether the efforts will be successful. However, a holistic approach, like that of Clermont County, has promise and might serve as a model for other communities.
