Bloomington.

• Author: Richey, Thayr
• Position: Indiana Metro Areas - Economic indicators

In many ways, Bloomington is transitioning. The most obvious evidence of change is downtown. Like mushrooms after a spring rain, the new apartments lining downtown streets are changing the skyline and nature of downtown Bloomington.

Economically, this has been a mixed year for Bloomington and Monroe County. However, the community remains one of the economic leaders in the state. This is an economy in transition; however, it is not clear what Bloomington's economy is transitioning into. Let's look at three factors that suggest the health of the Bloomington economy:

1. Population: We are growing but our growth rate has slowed. Population growth has increased in neighboring counties.

2. Employment: We continue to lose traditional manufacturing jobs (although we will see ups and downs in this sector); these jobs are being replaced by service sector jobs.

3. Income: The challenge will be to grow new economy manufacturing and service sector jobs sufficiently to replace the high-paying manufacturing jobs that we have lost and will continue to lose.

Population

In terms of population change, Monroe County continues to grow. In recent years, the growth rate has slowed somewhat from the previous twenty years, but the population still is growing (see Figure 1).

The county's population growth rate between 1990 and 2003 is above the state average. Although between 2000 and 2002 the county's growth rate (0.6 percent) was lower than the state average (1.3 percent). However, looking at the whole Bloomington metro area, which includes Greene and Owen counties, we ranked ninth among sixteen metro areas in the state.

However, we have not kept up with the population growth leaders in the state. Monroe County was the eleventh most populous Indiana county in 1990; today we are the twelfth most populous.

Commuting Patterns for Monroe County

With a residential labor force of 66,289, the community is also important to the economies of Greene, Owen, and Lawrence counties. This residential labor force has remained stable. Bloomington continues to serve as a regional employment center, as nearly 15,000 workers commuted to Monroe County to work, according to Census 2000 (see Figure 2).

Monroe County's unemployment rate is regularly among the lowest in the state. In September 2004, the county's unemployment rate was 2.5 percent.

Employment

While employment has remained strong in Bloomington, the nature of that employment is changing. After years of manufacturing...