Waco Chamber of Commerce Quarterly economy report

Today I attended the "Hour Economy", a quarterly luncheon the Waco Chamber of Commerce holds to keep members of the business community up to date on what is happening in McLennan County. I am happy to report that our unemployment rate is 7.2 compared to 5.1 last year, but the Waco Metropolitan Area has only lost 800 jobs from this time last year. That is still 2.5 % below the national unemployement level.

And many new jobs will be created in the next few months. The Waco VA Hospital just held groundbreaking ceremonies for a new post traumatic stress disorder research unit that will employ 200. The VA is also opening a national pharmacy call center in Waco which will employ 224 by next spring. L-3 Aviation, which refurbishes military aircraft, just opened a new hanger and will be hiring another 100 employees. And Allied Health Products will be opening a new diaper-making plant which will employ 115 people.

Jobs will also be created by a major face lift of the Waco Convention Center which will begin in October and take about 17 months to complete.

This time the keynote speaker was Liz Taylor from the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau, who reported on tourism statistics. She reported that visitor spend an average of 2 days in Waco, 55% of them visiting friends and relatives, the other 45% on business. 6% come to look for real estate! They pump 5.7 million into the Waco economy and create over 4,700 jobs for hotels, restaurants and other tourism related jobs. About 77% come from within Texas and travel an average of 250 miles.

And what are they mainly coming to see? The Texas Ranger Museum, the Dr. Pepper Museum and Cameron Park Zoo . She said most international visitors come to see the Armstrong/Browning Museum and Library located on the Baylor campus.

Kind of makes you proud you live in Waco, doesn't it?