Survey will target businesses in 41-county
rural development area in Middle Tennessee
MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Center will conduct a wage and
benefit survey for industries located in rural areas of Middle Tennessee in
hopes of equipping economic development officials with valuable data that can
be used to recruit new industry to the 41-county survey area.
BERC will administer the
survey through a partnership with the Middle Tennessee Industrial Development
Association, which is using a $45,000 rural business development grant from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Office. The survey and grant
were announced earlier this week at a news conference at MTSU’s James Union
Building.
BERC Director Murat Arik
noted that almost half of the counties covered in the survey are considered to
be “economically distressed” and have unemployment rates at least 1 percentage
point above the national average. One in four adults in those counties have
less than a high school education, he said.
The roughly 90-minute survey will
capture data such as business demographics, pay practices and employee benefits.
BERC will also create “occupational templates” for three sub-regions that
contain information such as how many people are employed in a particular area
and address issues such as difficulty filling open positions.
“It’s a very big deal for the
companies and the people involved in the process,” said Arik, who expects the survey
to be completed by March 2018.
Robert Bibb, executive director of
MTIDA, said the goal is to conduct such a survey every two years.
“Economic development is a totally
different ball game from what it used to be 20 years ago,” said Bibb said. “Now,
economic development is all about partnerships and without partnerships there’s
no way we could be doing the things we’re doing for the entire region.”
Harriet Cannon, acting state
director for USDA Rural Development, said an overall goal of the study is to
“level the playing field” by attracting more industry to these rural areas that
offer competitive wages, which in turn should lessen the need for rural
residents to commute into the metro areas to make a living.
“It’s our mission to emphasize the
importance of supporting rural economic development by providing funds for
conducting surveys, technical assistance, training and other job-creation
activities,” Cannon said. “The results of this study will allow MTIDA as well
as local economic development organizations to have an increased knowledge of
the region which will allow them to better recruit new investments.”
USDA Rural Development invests in
rural America with housing, business and infrastructure loans and grants “to
create jobs and strengthen rural economies with an emphasis to assist areas of
persistent poverty.”
David Urban, dean of MTSU’s Jones
College of Business, said the research conducted by BERC helps fulfill Jones
College’s business education accreditation requirement to consistently
demonstrate engagement, innovation and impact. The wage and salary survey “hits
all of those buttons,” he said, “… and is a way we can provide some of the
intellectual capital and research horsepower to have an impact on the broader
community.”
Other partners for the project
include the Upper Cumberland Development District, South Central Tennessee
Development District, Greater Nashville Regional Council, Nashville Chamber of
Commerce, Highlands Economic Partnership and the Tennessee Central Economic Authority.
For more information about the
Business and Economic Research Center at MTSU, call 615-898-2610, email berc@mtsu.edu or visit http://www.mtsu.edu/berc/.
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