The Snohomish County Economic Development Council is projecting that 2,623 new jobs could be added in the Puget Sound region by the end of 2010 in the four industry clusters it promotes and tracks — aerospace, biotechnology, medical device manufacturing and electronics manufacturing.
That’s assuming future growth rates in those industries rise to rates seen in the past five years, in other words a period of substantial economic recovery from the recession that continues to linger in late 2009.
In 2006, 2007 and 2008, those major industries added 5,417 new jobs, regionally, supporting the creation of an additional 6,513 indirect jobs for a total of 11,930 jobs worth $750 million by the end of 2008. While the aerospace sector expanded in those years, the other three lost 1,881 jobs.
Projecting employment gains in the four clusters through 2010, the EDC estimates adding 2,623 direct jobs and 3,122 indirect jobs, totaling 5,745 total new jobs worth an additional $391.9 million to the regional economy.
During that period, the EDC’s cluster industries are expected to generate $283.2 million in consumer spending and $8.4 million in state and local sales tax revenue.
The tracking of the four industrial clusters began in 2006 when the EDC launched Focused Forward, a five-year economic development program for the recruitment and expansion of target industries in an effort to grow and diversity the regional economy.
The EDC is a private, nonprofit organization that collaborates with businesses, citizens and government to enhance and stimulate regional economic growth through business attraction, expansion and retention programs.
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