Anderson.

• Author: Ritchey, Barry
• Position: County economic overview - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Even though we have seen the end of the 1990s, we have not seen the end of the structural change for the Anderson community. Anderson is moving away from its traditional role as a blue collar manufacturing center to a new identity as local service/retail center.

In the decade of the 1990s the county lost over 5,000 manufacturing jobs. We started with over 16,000 jobs in 1990, but finished the decade with just over 11,000 jobs. That is a 31 percent decline. We started the decade with one in three jobs in manufacturing and finished with only one in four.

The evolution of the employment base is also reflected in the community's ability to retain consumer expenditures. From 1990 to 1998, personal income increased by 48 percent in the county. During that same time period, retail sales increased by a similar amount, 50 percent. The growth in income was adequately reflected in the growth in retail sales. This is an indication that the community is becoming a mature local retail center. We are also seeing the development of a more complete service sector. In the past decade, service sector jobs increased by about 16 percent.

Residential construction is still strong for the community. For the first five years of the decade (1990-1994) there was a yearly average of $28.5 million in residential construction. For the next four years (1995-98) there was a yearly average of $47.5 million in residential construction in the county. Employment in the construction industry grew by about 25 percent during the decade.

The unemployment picture for our community is stable. Table 1 compares the unemployment picture in Madison County to the national average and the state average for Indiana. Our yearly average unemployment rate for the first half of the decade was 6.7 percent. For the last half of the decade, the yearly average dropped to 4 percent. We finished 1999 with our lowest rate of the decade, 3.2 percent. The early figures for 2000 are also encouraging. Through the first eight months, the average unemployment rate for Madison County is only 3.5 percent. These results are in part determined by the strong economic performance of the local economy. However, the results are also largely driven by the strong national and state economies. The changing mix of local employment away from cyclically sensitive manufacturing jobs certainly helps to reduce the swings of our unemployment rate over the business cycle. However, the manufacturing sector still commands 25...