By Tim Krohn
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO
July 19, 2008 11:03 pm
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The Mankato area has one of the strongest, stable and diverse long-term economies among non-metropolitan areas in the nation, according to a new report.
The Mankato and North Mankato area is ranked 53rd among the nation’s 577 micropolitan areas for economic strength. That’s up considerably from the last ranking in which the Mankato area was in the 90s.
Jonathan Zierdt, president and CEO of Greater Mankato Growth, said the ranking is especially gratifying because it looks at how well each economy has done during the past 10 to 20 years.
“A lot of groups do year-to-year measurements. This one looks at the consistency of performance over time. It’s a total portfolio,” Zierdt said.
The annual rankings come from Policom Corp., a Florida-based firm that does economic analysis of local and state economies.
William Fruth, president of Policom, cited Mankato’s diversity for its strength.
“The Mankato area had relatively consistent growth over the last 10 years compared to most micropolitan areas. Improvement in jobs and worker earnings was not brisk, but reliable,” Fruth said.
The three largest economic contributors for Mankato were manufacturing, farming and state government.
That’s consistent with surveys Greater Mankato Growth has done, Zierdt said. He said manufacturing accounts for the largest share of the local economy at 18 percent. Zierdt said one sector that is fast approaching that is health care, now accounting for some 14 percent of the local economy.
“Health care is a huge economic driver for us that is increasing all the time.”
Zierdt said the state government portion of the local economy is weighed toward higher education institutions such as MSU.
The Policom report found that manufacturing had a rebound locally, at least through 2006, the latest date for which information was available.
Between 2001 and 2003, the Mankato area lost about 700 manufacturing jobs, but by 2006 it had regained about 300 of them.
And worker earnings in manufacturing jumped from $125 million in 2001 to $161 million in 2006.
While the effects of the recent economic downturn aren’t measured in this report, Fruth said economies like Mankato’s are likely to hold up better than many.
“Many of the top-ranked micropolitan areas are resort destinations and scored at the top as a result of the boom in the construction industry. These areas are likely to fall in the ranking in the future.”
Zierdt said the structure of the local economy should serve it well.
“What’s good about our economy is it’s so diverse. Even within manufacturing, there is diversity — electronics or sheet metal or others. One may be down but the other may be up, so it balances,” Zierdt said.
Micropolitan areas are those with cities fewer than 50,000 population. The ranking includes all of Blue Earth and Nicollet counties as the Mankato-North Mankato micropolitan area.
Policom notes that micropolitan areas generally have economies that fluctuate much more and are overall much weaker economies than the larger metropolitan areas.
Some other micropolitan areas in southern Minnesota and their rankings: Owatonna (129), Marshall (292), New Ulm (320), Albert Lea (323).
The strongest three micropolitans in the country were: Hilton Head, S.C.; Edwards, Col.; Concord, NH.
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