The Mississippi State University Extension Office’s yearly economic profile for Lowndes County shows significant growth in key industries and a $10,000 jump in personal income over nine years.
Mississippi State Agricultural Economics Professor Alan Barefield presented the findings of a 2021 economic profile report to the Rotary Club of Columbus on Tuesday at Lion hills Center, detailing the progress and current state of major industries in Lowndes County.
The report shows $3.07 billion in gross production among the top 10 sectors in Lowndes County in 2020, compared to $2.76 billion in 2016.
Manufacturing was the top sector with $655 million of gross product made in the county in 2020, compared to $543 million in 2016.
Durable goods such as steel, made up $588 million of that total. Government entities like public universities such as Mississippi University for Women and East Mississippi Community College ranked after manufacturing, producing $522 million in goods and services.
The MSU Extension Office compiles the data for its economic profile reports from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis using gross county/state product reports, which details the total value of all goods and services produced in the county and state, Barefield said.
Barefield told Rotarians the county has grown significantly in those industries between 2016 and 2020, averaging between 6 percent and 42 percent in growth. He also noted the success of the manufacturing industry would not be so robust if not for the participation of neighboring counties as well as public universities in the Golden Triangle.
“You have a very strong manufacturing sector in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park and other places throughout Lowndes County,” Barefield said. “That sector, though, wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t supported by the other two counties, by EMCC, by MUW, by Mississippi State. So we’ve got a very good lever here to catapult this entire region, not just the county, certainly raking a lot of benefits from it, but to catapult the region into the next decade or even century.”
As a result of the economic growth in Lowndes County, Barefield said the average per capita income for county residents rose to $45,000 in 2020 as compared to $35,000 in 2011.
During the presentation, Barefield also spoke about the MSU Veterans Affairs economic profile, which tracks the expenditures of the VA office and how that money affects specific industries in the county. In 2021, the Lowndes County Veteran Affairs Office spent $59 million on the 4,746 local veterans in expenditures ranging from pensions and benefits to health care and education.
That spending impact translated into more than $56 million in added sales to area industries such as construction, transportation, service industries such as food and beverage and mining, to name a few.
Rotarian Jim Ford asked how the impact works, noting that in agriculture, the veteran spending impact totaled only $28,280.
“That’s a result of that (veteran) spending they can track back to that spending on veterans,” Barefield said. “You don’t count grocery stores in agriculture. Those are counted in retail.”
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