Performance

There is an interesting report here on how cities compare in job creation and growth. We are in the list of 179 small cities. With a rank of 136, we are ahead of only Victoria (at 160) in Texas. Looks disappointing doesn't it.

If you look at the full report, (which is available as a pdf after you register) you will see that there is nothing the best performing cities are doing that we can't do. They weren't growing in those areas that require resources such as interstate highways and heavy transportation. We can grow in the business and professional services sectors. We are already growing our tourism industry. We are getting more comfortable with leading edge technology. We have been recognized as a great retirement center for a while. None of the growth areas require factors we don't have and we can improve based on what is in this and other reports.

One factor is how knowledge based our leading businesses and industries will need to become. High technology such as advanced communications systems and information technology is often a component of a knowledge based business, but the technology is really just a set of tools used to deliver our skills and expertise to the rest of the world. We already have companies that are servicing clients nationwide using the internet and our great communications infrastructure.

There is a lot of work to be done, but reports such as this one can help chart the direction we need to go. We need to at least get ahead of Abilene.