KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — It’s difficult to imagine why people are so angry about the economy right now, especially in the Kalamazoo region, if you listen to the numbers.
The man assigned the task of attracting new jobs and companies to Kalamazoo, Southwest Michigan First CEO Ron Kitchens, gave Kalamazoo County Commissioners a rundown this week.
He says unemployment here is at 3.7 percent, one of the lowest in the nation. That’s because, since January 2012, current and new firms have created 47,429 net new jobs in the region.
“That’s people who have jobs today that were not working in this region in 2012,” Kitchens said.
He said they have more openings than they have qualified people to fill and that has boosted wages.
“Since 2011, household income is up 9 percent at a time when we have seen house hold income remain flat around the nation,” Kitchens said.
He says poverty is down 3.4 percent, and the area has the third lowest cost of living for a metropolitan area in the nation. On average its 21percent cheaper to live here than in the average American town.
Kitchens said the area is truly blessed, but admits that not everyone here is benefiting from the slow economic recovery we have seen since the Great Recession. He said it’s his organization’s most-important goal to change that.
