Help shape the Regional Economic Strategy

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The region is updating the Regional Economic Strategy. This strategy provides a blueprint for regional collaboration to sustain and grow economic prosperity for all.

The strategy is organized around three overarching goals:

  • expanding economic opportunity
  • maintaining global competitiveness
  • sustaining a high quality of life

The strategy will highlight important efforts already underway to reach these goals and identify new ways for making progress.

The region has faced unprecedented challenges over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis has created both new economic challenges and new opportunities.

During the scoping process and preliminary outreach efforts, major themes for economic recovery have emerged:

Equity

The region faces historical inequities regarding economic opportunities and economic outcomes for the region’s residents, including income, generational wealth and levels of business ownership. COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges, disproportionately impacting the populations that already had the least access to opportunity.

In the region’s education system, students of color face disproportionate challenges to educational success. Within the region’s population, there are gaps in graduation rates based upon racial, ethnic, and income characteristics. More than a year of virtual learning will likely expand the disparity in outcomes for these students.

Health

COVID-19 has made it clear that the success of an economy depends on the health of its residents. Attention to health as a consequence of economic, planning, and infrastructure decisions can improve quality of life for residents, reduce health care costs, and lessen impacts from lost productivity. More importantly, improving equity in health outcomes is critical to sustaining a productive region with a high quality of life.

Child Care

The pandemic has called out the critical nature of childcare availability for both individual families’ economic outcomes as well as the overall performance of the region’s economy. Recent analysis shows that lack of access to affordable childcare keeps over 133,000 potential workers out of Washington’s labor force and has significant negative impacts on overall state earnings, business output, and tax revenues.

Job Distribution

The COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty about where people will live and work in the future. The region continues to plan to support major job centers. However, if workers continue to work from home or in remote locations, this may provide opportunities for some communities throughout the region to expand their economic base, while creating challenges for others.

Broadband

COVID-19 has called attention to the need for greater broadband access across the region. This access is critical to connecting the region’s residents to educational and economic opportunities wherever they live.

Housing & Homelessness

The region’s housing stock has not kept up with job and population growth, increasing housing costs. The region has a backlog of 45-50,000 housing units just to accommodate recent growth and will need approximately 800,000 new housing units by the year 2050. Challenges in housing supply have contributed to rising, chronic homelessness in the region. The extent of these challenges, especially in the region’s urban centers, can be a determining factor for new talent and businesses considering locating here.

Business Recovery

COVID-19 has had a major negative impact on many regional businesses, especially on the travel, tourism, hospitality, arts, and culture industries. State and local governments and a network of support organizations have been working to provide financial and technical assistance to small businesses across the region that are struggling, while working to leverage federal recovery funding. As COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease and businesses work to fully reopen, the region will need to continue to work to help these struggling businesses.

Industry Resilience

The region’s industries continue to evolve, with new subsectors emerging while others decrease in employment and impact over time. Working to foster diversity in the region’s industries will help ensure resiliency and viability into the future. COVID-19 demonstrated a risk to current and future competitiveness – global supply chain disruptions. Supply chain disruptions and the strain on international relationships have negatively impacted regional businesses that export goods and services around the world.

In addition to these major themes for economic recovery, the Regional Economic Strategy will continue to identify and address ongoing challenges and opportunities related to expanding economic opportunity, maintaining global competitiveness, and sustaining a high quality of life in the region.

The region is updating the Regional Economic Strategy. This strategy provides a blueprint for regional collaboration to sustain and grow economic prosperity for all.

The strategy is organized around three overarching goals:

  • expanding economic opportunity
  • maintaining global competitiveness
  • sustaining a high quality of life

The strategy will highlight important efforts already underway to reach these goals and identify new ways for making progress.

The region has faced unprecedented challenges over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis has created both new economic challenges and new opportunities.

During the scoping process and preliminary outreach efforts, major themes for economic recovery have emerged:

Equity

The region faces historical inequities regarding economic opportunities and economic outcomes for the region’s residents, including income, generational wealth and levels of business ownership. COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges, disproportionately impacting the populations that already had the least access to opportunity.

In the region’s education system, students of color face disproportionate challenges to educational success. Within the region’s population, there are gaps in graduation rates based upon racial, ethnic, and income characteristics. More than a year of virtual learning will likely expand the disparity in outcomes for these students.

Health

COVID-19 has made it clear that the success of an economy depends on the health of its residents. Attention to health as a consequence of economic, planning, and infrastructure decisions can improve quality of life for residents, reduce health care costs, and lessen impacts from lost productivity. More importantly, improving equity in health outcomes is critical to sustaining a productive region with a high quality of life.

Child Care

The pandemic has called out the critical nature of childcare availability for both individual families’ economic outcomes as well as the overall performance of the region’s economy. Recent analysis shows that lack of access to affordable childcare keeps over 133,000 potential workers out of Washington’s labor force and has significant negative impacts on overall state earnings, business output, and tax revenues.

Job Distribution

The COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty about where people will live and work in the future. The region continues to plan to support major job centers. However, if workers continue to work from home or in remote locations, this may provide opportunities for some communities throughout the region to expand their economic base, while creating challenges for others.

Broadband

COVID-19 has called attention to the need for greater broadband access across the region. This access is critical to connecting the region’s residents to educational and economic opportunities wherever they live.

Housing & Homelessness

The region’s housing stock has not kept up with job and population growth, increasing housing costs. The region has a backlog of 45-50,000 housing units just to accommodate recent growth and will need approximately 800,000 new housing units by the year 2050. Challenges in housing supply have contributed to rising, chronic homelessness in the region. The extent of these challenges, especially in the region’s urban centers, can be a determining factor for new talent and businesses considering locating here.

Business Recovery

COVID-19 has had a major negative impact on many regional businesses, especially on the travel, tourism, hospitality, arts, and culture industries. State and local governments and a network of support organizations have been working to provide financial and technical assistance to small businesses across the region that are struggling, while working to leverage federal recovery funding. As COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease and businesses work to fully reopen, the region will need to continue to work to help these struggling businesses.

Industry Resilience

The region’s industries continue to evolve, with new subsectors emerging while others decrease in employment and impact over time. Working to foster diversity in the region’s industries will help ensure resiliency and viability into the future. COVID-19 demonstrated a risk to current and future competitiveness – global supply chain disruptions. Supply chain disruptions and the strain on international relationships have negatively impacted regional businesses that export goods and services around the world.

In addition to these major themes for economic recovery, the Regional Economic Strategy will continue to identify and address ongoing challenges and opportunities related to expanding economic opportunity, maintaining global competitiveness, and sustaining a high quality of life in the region.