How do you envision NWA 10-20 years from now?

[bigboyz05]

For people who have or are living there now, how do you see the area's economy in the future?

[mcheiss]

I still see the Service & Retail sectors continuing to add many jobs as NWA's retail and restaurant space is lagging behind other metro's of it's size.

Educational jobs will also be another large provider to the economy. It seems every year that four or five elementary schools open up in the region, in which each adds a few hundred jobs. Plus, NWACC is experiencing good growth, with projected enrollment to be 10,000 by 2010.

I've often heard of the potential of the Tech industry up here, especially with the Arkansas Research Park.

Vendors will continue relocating their Wal-Mart operations to the area, especially international vendors. Experts predict that up to 150 Chinese Vendors could make landfall into the NWA metro within a few years.

I'm not so sure that any large companies will be moving to the area, though.

[edensfall]

there is that possibility of that steel mill being built in arkansas, hopefully here, we need alot more industry jobs here besides chicken plants

[Mith242]

Arkansas needs to worry about relying so much on manufacturing though. Sure it was a nice thing for a while but now a lot of those jobs are heading out to other countries. For some parts of the state any job is a great thing. But the state as a whole really needs to diversify it's job market. It's probably only a matter of time before more manufacturing jobs head out of state.

[jdevers]

Arkansas needs to worry about relying so much on manufacturing though. Sure it was a nice thing for a while but now a lot of those jobs are heading out to other countries. For some parts of the state any job is a great thing. But the state as a whole really needs to diversify it's job market. It's probably only a matter of time before more manufacturing jobs head out of state.

That's the truth, some people need to realize that manufacturing jobs of the non-trained variety are pretty much a thing of the past in the US. The ones involving specialized training will last a bit longer, but to be completely honest there weren't very many of them in Arkansas in the first place.

As to the previous comment, I think NWA is about the last place in the state a steel mill would relocate to. We have about the opposite economic indicators they would want and none of the infrastructural or geographical features they would need to be able to cheaply do business. Little Rock or Fort Smith would be far more likely to get it and theh Marion/ West Memphis area is probably more likely than either of those two cities.

[masons_dad1]

That's the truth, some people need to realize that manufacturing jobs of the non-trained variety are pretty much a thing of the past in the US. The ones involving specialized training will last a bit longer, but to be completely honest there weren't very many of them in Arkansas in the first place.

As to the previous comment, I think NWA is about the last place in the state a steel mill would relocate to. We have about the opposite economic indicators they would want and none of the infrastructural or geographical features they would need to be able to cheaply do business. Little Rock or Fort Smith would be far more likely to get it and theh Marion/ West Memphis area is probably more likely than either of those two cities.

This subject has been discussed before, but I agree that any heavy industries would never be located in NWA simply because there's no major waterway or rail system in this area. High-tech industries can do well just about anywhere, but the lack of an international airport with vast cargo capabilities, lack of a technical university and the low unemployment rate makes NWA less than desireable for any high-tech industries, although NWA is the state's leader in technical research & development, but once something is designed here it will be built somewhere else.

[KJW]

This subject has been discussed before, but I agree that any heavy industries would never be located in NWA simply because there's no major waterway or rail system in this area. High-tech industries can do well just about anywhere, but the lack of an international airport with vast cargo capabilities, lack of a technical university and the low unemployment rate makes NWA less than desireable for any high-tech industries, although NWA is the state's leader in technical research & development, but once something is designed here it will be built somewhere else.

MasonsDad, here's where I've wondered whether a partnership with the city whom we share our media market with, Fort Smith, might come in.

FSM has all the things necessary you talked about in the first sentence I bolded. In the second, it's an hour (or less, depending on what part of the metro area you go to...I'd think there's a good reason much of the growth of that area's taking place in the northern Crawford County end, which also has the best rail links) away from our high-tech research areas.

And we don't even have to wait for Arkansas' I-49...we're linked by an interstate already.

I doubt with the big hills in between that we'll see continuous growth making them one big metro area, but I wonder if we'll see these two areas much more linked together than they are now in the next decade or two. I think there's actually been discussion of a mass transit link between the two...I remember someone saying a lot of Washington Countians used to HEAD SOUTH (to FSM) to their jobs...

(EDIT: It's also interesting to me that UAFS has been doing some advertising with billboards in Benton County.)