Flint Hills Technical College served as the host site of the 2021 Emporia Economic Outlook Conference.
The Economic Outlook Conference is organized by Wichita State’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research. The conference provides insight into current local and state economies by focusing on a number of topics including business, health care, industry, education and government.
Among the presenters in attendance was Emporia State University Assistant Professor of mathematics Bekah Selby. Selby presented a local update that focused on three specific areas the local labor market, business dynamics and demographics and population.
On the labor market, Selby stated that, to no surprise, the local job market took a significant hit over the last 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Selby says the hardest hit sector was leisure and hospitality.
She says in recent months, the labor market has begun to rebound from the pandemic’s impacts with several areas seeing significant growth.
Meanwhile, local Ek Real Estate agent Jeff Williams was part of a panel on the local real estate market. Williams says the pandemic did not have as adverse an effect on the real estate market as most tend to think over the past year.
He says many individuals have interpreted the lack of available homes for sale locally as a sign of a decrease in available real estate as a whole. He says this is not true, in fact homes are simply selling faster than they have in years past.
Williams says average sales are also up seven percent which when coupled with the 12 percent increase in home sales puts Emporia’s volume up by 19 percent. Williams says the National Association of Realtors considers 3 to 5 percent to be “healthy” putting Emporia well above that bar.
The Emporia conference is part of a series of similar meetings which take place across the state each year.
