Here are some numbers for you to ponder:
- The Fort Collins area is 7th in the nation in under-employment.
- Research has shown that 10 – 15 percent of jobs in a community disappear annually due to the creative destruction process inherent in the free enterprise system.
- 3 billion people around the world want a good-paying job but only 1.2 billion such jobs exist.
- On a list of 18 community issues, the top three most important things to Fort Collins residents according to a recent poll are creating more quality jobs in Fort Collins, improving the quality of public education and attraction of major employers to Fort Collins.
As one of the community’s biggest cheerleaders, I love bragging about the Fort Collins area. Things are certainly going our way on many fronts. That doesn’t mean that we can afford to be complacent, which is the point of the top three numbers listed above. The short version is that we aren’t creating enough good-paying jobs, we have to run fast just to keep up and the competition for our jobs is fierce.
Clearly the residents of Fort Collins understand all that based on their strong support for economic development.
The Chamber is holding a ‘Future of Jobs’ summit tomorrow morning at Hilton Fort Collins to discuss the latest on the economy and efforts to create more jobs. The Coloradoan editorial board wrote about it on Sunday as you can see here and below. We have a lot of work to do on the job creation front, and the Coloradoan is right when they say we can’t rest on our laurels.
I hope to see you there tomorrow.
