The findings show that the population growth has led to a higher number of people with bachelor’s degrees joining the workforce.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — With 2024 coming to a close, The Right Place in Grand Rapids recently released their latest economic report for the region. Their findings show that as the city’s population grows, so does the demand for jobs along with people wanting a good quality of life.
“Grand Rapids is a very strong growth market. As a result, when you look across the country, we’re sort of middle of the pack. So as we continue to move forward, we want to be sort of that dynamic, thriving region that we aspire to be. We need to go from winning in the Midwest to now winning nationwide,” said president and CEO of The Right Place, Randy Thelen.
The findings from the report show a variety of factors influencing Grand Rapids’ economy—including the population growth leading to higher wages and a higher number of people with bachelor’s degrees joining the workforce.
“By and large, if you have a college degree, you generally make double the income in your lifetime and have half the unemployment experience, so there’s some real advantages to having an educated workforce. It also, of course, drives business growth. The brighter the talent, the more developed the talent, the more it’s going to perform for a company, and we’re seeing that locally as our GDP continues to expand,” said Thelen.
The report also found that West Michigan is attracting a younger workforce talent pool. Thelen said big efforts have been made to make the region an attractive place to live for young people.
“What’s unique about our region is we retain about 80% of those college grads. So an influx of young people come in roughly 18 to 19 years old, and when they graduate college, the vast majority stay, and that’s the predominant part of our population growth, and we need to continue to make sure that happens,” said Thelen.
He said there’s three major growth sectors in the region right now. Those include jobs in manufacturing, tech and health sciences. With these findings, he tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE that job growth at all levels is important and he hopes the future will offer more opportunities for those with and without college degrees.
“The talent base here in greater Grand Rapids, roughly 40% have a college degree. 60% do not. We need to provide job opportunities for everybody so that they can all find more opportunities to advance their career, more opportunities to earn more money, more opportunities to increase their quality of life, for their family,” said Thelen.