Thurston County Soars in National Rankings: Second in Economic Strength, Ninth in Sustainable Growth & Resilience - The Power of Partnerships and Regional Vision
Within the last two months, Thurston County has registered significantly high in national rankings – Chmura Economics rated our county as number 2 for economic strength & prime workforce rankings; shortly after, the Milken Institute ranked our county as number 9 for sustainable growth & resilience. These rankings are very gratifying – compared to and ahead of some of our country’s international cities, it is very exciting. We’ve come to several conclusions in our review of the rankings and the data points/categories that make up those indexes. The first and foremost condition is that our community has built a strong network of community and economic development partnerships. The ecosystem of economic development is solid and deep. Our organization’s Board of Directors has required us to seek out new partnerships – both traditional to the effort of economic development and non-traditional with organizations that play a significant role in building a strong community. This mantra of partnership has created a deep and vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The second conclusion is that our business community participates in what might best be described as an ongoing effort to build regional wealth and awareness. We develop programs and activities that create new wage opportunities – and we seek out opportunities to tell the story to build what can be best described as “the coalition of the willing.”
Chmura Analytics Report: https://www.areadevelopment.com/Leading-Locations/Q4-2023/leading-metro-locations-full-results-2023.shtml
Milken Institute Report: https://milkeninstitute.org/report/best-performing-cities-2024-sustainable-growth
In the coming weeks, we will provide you with more details of what these rankings mean — and how it has been a long-range strategy of all of our economic development partners to create a vibrant and inclusive economy. We have a long way to go – a lot of work to do. Economic development is complex – and we, as your economic development organization, are ready to roll up our sleeves and continue on the good hard work.