GRAND RAPIDS – If the results of The Right Place’s economic forecast are any indication, 2025 is set to be a pretty good economic year for the greater Grand Rapids region.
The Right Place, Inc., the Grand Rapids-based economic development organization, hosted its 2025 Economic Outlook for the greater Grand Rapids region. The event featured a state of the region presentation by The Right Place, Inc. President and CEO Randy Thelen, a national forecast by Fifth Third Bank Managing Director and Chief Economist Jeff Korzenik, a state forecast by W.E. Upjohn Institute President Michael Horrigan, and manufacturing insights from W.E. Upjohn Institute Senior Economist Susan N. Houseman.
One of the better numbers to come out of the report, according to Thelen, is the job growth. The region has seen 1,800 new and retained jobs, well on the way to the 4,000 projected by The Right Place’s three-year strategic plan.
About half of that growth, Thelen pointed out, came from the manufacturing and technology industries.
“Those are great signals for us,” Thelen said. “We are one of the great manufacturing hubs in the country. Truly, we’re about 19% manufacturing economy and job growth in that sector isn’t easy to come by because you’ve got incredible automation and smart manufacturing practices that are helping companies become more and more efficient every day.
“And so the value of that labor goes up, the wage goes up, but the quantity goes down,” he added. “So to see job growth in manufacturing this past couple of years has been fantastic. At the same time, we are diversifying the economy more into tech and seeing tech jobs grow really strong the last three years is just something we’re excited about.”
During his presentation, Thelen pointed to the progress he says is being made on the organization’s three-year plan, which spans 2023-2025. In 2024, the organization’s work has resulted in:
- 1,800 new and retained jobs against a 3-year goal of 4,000 new and retained jobs.
- $26.96 average hourly wage against a 3-year goal of $26.50 average wage.*
- $445 million in new capital investment against a 3-year goal of $550 million.
- $200 million in community development against a 3-year goal of $100 million.
- Hosting more than 16,000 Tech Week attendees.
- Hosting a sold-out Developer Day with 160 developers and construction firms.
- Hosting a sold-out Place Matters Summit.
- Supporting over 600 area interns at Hello West Michigan’s Intern Connect event.
- Facilitating 20 business expansion projects.
- Collaborating with our partner counties with events and job creation.
- Coordinating 600 business retention visits.
- Launching a comprehensive AI Roadmap to help local manufacturers navigate AI.
- Publishing four custom research reports: State of the Region, Tech Report, Development Report and Talent Report.
(*This wage goal refers to the hourly rate of jobs created/retained within projects The Right Place directly works on in its 8-county coverage region.)
Thelen also noted Right Place staff coordinated 600 business retention visits, allowing staff to learn more about existing businesses and engage in dialogue to help ensure their prosperity in the region.
“In those visits we ask a series of questions … are they growing sales, are they adding employment, are they looking to expand?” he said. “We saw about a 6% reduction on each of those indicators this year, year over year.”
So while the forecast is good, it’s not all rosy, according to Thelen. He said 6% fewer companies are increasing sales than last year, 7% fewer companies are planning expansions, 8% fewer companies are increasing hiring.
Thelen said the recently completed national election may have had an effect on some of the lesser numbers.
“Those aren’t alarm-bell numbers, but they’re definitely signals we’re watching,” he said. “A national election tends to slow down decision making and create a cloud that causes some degree of pessimism until that sort of national choice is made.
“And so we’ll be watching to see if those numbers come back now that the election is behind us,” he added. “No matter which side you’re on, at least the decision is made and we’re going to move forward with those.”
After highlighting Right Place’s accomplishments, Thelen walked the crowd through its third-annual State of the Region report, which is designed to inform the community of key trends impacting the region. It is the result of qualitative insights from The Right Place’s economic development work across its eight-county collaborative and quantitative economic research performed by its Business Intelligence team.
Key 2024 statistics from the State of the Region report include:
People
- 6.1% population growth over the last decade.
- Nearly 40,000 tech sector workers.
- Two-thirds of the region’s population in the past decade comprised diverse communities.
- 37% have a bachelor’s degree or higher
- Higher concentration of young people as a share of the population compared to the nation.
Place
- 2.5% industrial vacancy rate.
- 9% increase in residential building permits from 2023 to 2024.
- The region’s cost of living is 8% below the national average.
- 348,000 more air travelers than in 2023.
Prosperity
- 591,00 regional employment in 2024. Faster growth than state and national levels since 2019.
- 53% of companies are planning expansions.
- 62% of companies report increasing sales.
- 45% of companies plan to increase hiring.
Those numbers put the greater Grand Rapids region on a par with other regions in the Midwest – where Thelen says Columbus, Indianapolis and Grand Rapids are the three strongest growth markets — and has it outpacing the national economy. “ We expect that pattern to hold,” Thelen said. “We’ve got a very strong, diversified economy. We’ve got a growing tech economy and we think that bodes well for 2025. I think for us it’s trying to raise the bar and start competing.”
