Or, as UA President Robert Shelton put it “there are gold stars” and “there are red flags.”
About 550 people attended the Oct. 2 TREO report card luncheon at the Hilton El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort.
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Joe Snell, president and CEO of TREO, said the announcements of 11 business relocations and expansions over the past year goes a long way to validating the Tucson region as the No. 1 mid-sized county in the country for business recruitment and attraction, as was declared by Expansion Management magazine.
“We experienced a 40-percent increase over last year in recruitment success and a 75-percent increase in expansion (and) retention projects during the same period,” Snell told the audience.
More importantly, Snell said, 57 percent of the successful projects were in industries targeted in TREO’s blueprint because the jobs in those industries pay higher wages. In the past year, 44 percent of primary jobs that were created are in targeted industries.
Several speakers acknowledged the financial straits facing the nation, but said Tucson needs to remain focused on its goals.
Here’s a summary of the report card results in the five targeted areas:
High-skill/high-wage jobs
Favorables:
• Net job creation is up 1.4 percent over the past seven years, more than double the national average.
• Growth in targeted industry employment is up 1.3 percent and growth in businesses is up 2.1 percent.
Unfavorables:
• Per capita, personal income is still comparatively low, though it is rising at a rate of 5.1 percent.
• Wages are still comparatively low but rising at a rate of 3.8 percent.
• Tucson was the second lowest of the 11 regions for its percentage of 25-to-34-year-olds, the “creative class,” in the workforce.
Education
Favorables:
• Average Arizona student test scores on the ACT college entrance exam ranked No. 2 among the primary competitor states.
• Research and development expenditures at the University of Arizona ranked No. 2 among the 11 cities and are 20th in the nation.
• Arizona ranks No. 2 among competitor states for the rate of bachelor’s degrees in natural sciences and engineering.
Unfavorables:
• Arizona was seventh among the eight states state spending per student and is 49th in the nation in that statistic.
• Arizona ranks low on measures of math and science performance and proficiency in grades 4 through 8.
• Only 35 percent of UA graduates stay in Tucson.
Downtown Tucson
Favorables:
• The new Downtown Tucson Partnership has established baseline indicators focusing on safety, livability, accessibility, learning environment, attractiveness, economic activity and excitement.
Unfavorables:
In delivering his report, Shelton only said much needs to be done to develop downtown as the “heart of the region,” which he said go a long ways to attracting the desirable 25-to-34-year-old “creative class” workforce.
Livable community
Favorables:
• An average commute time of 25.7 minutes each way is shorter than most competitor regions.
• Tucson ties with Austin for having the best air quality among the 11 competitor regions.
• Waste recycling has tripled.
Unfavorables:
• Housing affordability ranks seventh of the 11 competitor regions.
• A persistent high poverty rate at 15 percent is second of the competitor regions.
• Crime; the region ranks No. 3 in violent crime and No. 4 in property crime.
Collaborative government
Favorables:
• 11 new partnerships have been developed in the region in the past three years, including Tucson Young Professionals, TREO’s Shovel Ready team, the Metropolitan Tucson Chamber of Commerce’s Development Services Committee and Pima Association of Governments’ Solar Partnerships and Regional Transportation Authority.
Unfavorables:
None were disclosed and, although the Marana Town Council voted last month to pull out of TREO, town representatives were at the luncheon.
Daisy Jenkins, vice president of human resources for Raytheon Missile Systems, encouraged the audience to use their businesses to support the target areas of education and downtown.
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