Huntington's Economic Performance Featured

 

The Huntington Herald-Press recently published a feature story highlighting the economic performance of Huntington and the direction the Community is headed.

 

Huntington County Economic Development Corporation clients have, since 2008, committed to 92 industrial expansion and/or attraction projects accounting for private investments totaling over $261 million.  Agency clients have committed over the same period to create nearly 2,200 new jobs while retaining over 8,300 incumbent workers.

 

The vacancy rate for industrial buildings which is now 4.3% instead of the 46.5% from 2008.  The unemployment rate in the County peaked at 14.3% in June of 2009 and is now 4.2%.

 

The article more specifically focuses on the period from 2012 to 2016 year to date compared to the pre and post-recession data.

 

Huntington County Economic Development Corporation is a non-profit organization per Section 501 C 3 of the Internal Revenue Code.  Oversight of the agency is provided by a 17 member board of directors.  The organization is not a unit of government, nor a politically partisan group.

 

As quoted in the Herald-Press article, Mark Wickersham, executive director for the Huntington County Economic Development Corporation said, "It's an astonishing record for a county and city of our size.  Those team efforts have allowed the community to finally work from a more comprehensive approach to economic development, away from the absolute urgency to only do what has traditionally been known as industrial development."