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Economic Development For A Defined Area

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Economic development for a defined area has three primary goals—foster employment opportunities for the area’s current residents, diversify the area’s economic and employment base, and stabilize the local economy (Blakely & Leigh, 2013). By providing quality jobs for an area’s residents, versus the more costly alternative of bringing new firms to the area (which could also require a different skill set in their labor force than what the city currently has--rendering the city’s effort somewhat fruitless), the economic planning organization is looking to create employment diversity and opportunities from within their own community that are suitable for the area’s workforce. An area must also be highly aware of the business environment within the community to ensure that local economic stability is possible. If the city does not have a diverse infrastructure that firms require to conduct business than the locality will not be able to grow, retain, or attract firms within or to the area. Diversity in the economic and employment base is also a complex and constantly evolving challenge for local economic development practitioners. The organization must be able to keep track and organize employment data within a locality to see where certain sectors of the economy are in the need of assistance to prevent employment gaps in the community. Planner’s should be constantly comparing their strategies and approaches to the three goals local economic development, and prevent any action

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