THURSDAY, December 13, 2007 — Despite a 'ho-hum' economy, Lee County made significant progress this year, leaving the area stronger than it was when '06 came to a close.

That was the general assessment from Bob Heuts and Charles Hayes, economic developers who poked and prodded the most-recent data to provide their annual diagnosis of the "Health of Lee County."

This year's fifth-annual assessment, sponsored by the Committee of 100, was delivered to about 125 community leaders on Dec. 5, and it was filled with encouraging news on economic development and education.

The only disappointment may have been Lee County's sluggish economy.

While there were no particularly-bad economic numbers unveiled during the annual luncheon, nothing had improved all that much, with an unemployment rate up just slightly and taxable sales holding steady.

The two-tenths-of-one-percent increase in Lee County's unemployment rate, paired with a slight decrease in the Research Triangle Region, as a whole, widened "The Gap," a persistent difference that has plagued local officials.

Other than the static economy, there was plenty of news to celebrate.

Surprise! Manufacturing is ... UP?

Perhaps the most unexpected news was that manufacturing continues to strengthen in Lee County, bucking conventional wisdom about the dismal future of American industry. About 39 percent of local residents now work in the sector, up from 36 percent last year and 33 percent in 2005.

Heuts, director of the Lee County Economic Corp., said that was good news. "Why do we chase manufacturing? Why is manufacturing important?" he asked. "It's because these are the best paying jobs."

Manufacturing jobs in Lee County pay an average of $42,775 per year, more than all but two much-smaller segments — utilities and wholesale trade.

The preeminent role of manufacturing remains one striking difference between Lee County and the broader region, said Hayes, where only one of every 10 people works in the sector.

"What we do in Lee County is we make things," said Hayes, a Sanford resident and president and CEO of the Research Triangle Regional Partnership. "That 39 percent, I think, is the highest in the region; regionwide, it's just 9 percent. That's a tremendous difference.

Education Bounces Back

Other good news came from education, where last year's disappointing numbers bounced back stronger than anyone expected.

When the latest figures were released, 61.5 percent of Lee County Schools had achieved "adequate yearly progress," a government-mandated measure of performance. That was higher than the state average of 44.7 percent and even surpassed high-performing districts, including Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Wake County.

Lee also had 78.5 percent of its schools meet or exceed growth expectations, also higher than the state average, and Central Carolina Community College met or exceeded all 12 performance measures used to assess the quality of North Carolina community colleges. Only six of the state's 58 schools could make that claim.

Though the schools' performance was strong, other education-related news came in the form of a warning: Fewer Lee Countians have a two- or four-year college degree than those across the Research Triangle Region, and that could be a problem when recruiting business and industry in the future.

With the rise of the knowledge worker, Hayes explained, higher levels of education are required for every kind of job, even those once filled by people with less than a high-school diploma. That means communities and regions with the most knowledge workers will get most of the future growth and quality jobs.

Some disparity isn't all that surprising. The Research Triangle includes counties with large, world-class universities and major medical centers, attracting an unusually-high proportion of highly-educated residents. Still, Lee County falls slightly below even the national average, and that's something both developers worry about for the future.

"One of the slides that is astounding to me is that we have 20 percent of our people with less than a high-school education," said Heuts. "That's going to have an impact on our services. There's no question about that ....

"We still have our work cut out for us in that area."

Some Quick Highlights from "The Health of Lee"

Sanford continued to receive accolades, rising to 24 on Site Selection magazine's annual list of America's Best Small Towns for Business and to 45th in economic strength on Policom's annual survey of 576 "micropolitan" areas in the United States.

Several local industries announced plans this year to add facility space and jobs. Frontier Spinning started a $20 million expansion project. Challenge Printing added space and employees by moving to the Lee County Industrial Park. Wyeth announced a $50 million construction project. And Caterpillar began work on a cutting-edge training center — one of just seven worldwide to train its entire workforce in lean management.

Lee County's crime rate dropped again and now stands at 4,740 per 100,000 inhabitants. While that remains higher than the region (3,998), Hayes said it's lower than many counties — including Durham (about 6,600), Cumberland (about 7,600) and Mecklenburg (about 7,600).

Central Carolina Hospital announced plans this year to invest $6 million in an array of capital improvement projects, strengthening not only its own facility but also the area's overall health care industry.

Only two Fortune 500 companies have headquarters in the Research Triangle Region — Progress Energy in Wake County and The Pantry in Lee. Entering at number 436, The Pantry joined Fortune magazine's list of America's largest corporations earlier this year.

More on the Web

The Health of Lee County 2007: Executive Summary (228K PDF)

The Health of Lee County 2007: Lee County Presentation (1.5MB PDF)

2.0 | the next version of industry (712K PDF)
   a look at the state of manufacturing from The Sanford Herald and the Committee of 100