The Business Case and Economic Impact of Inclusion

The mission of economic developers is to grow jobs and capital investment in our communities. While the distribution of employment and investment in communities around the country has long been a concern of Economic Development Organizations (EDO), the question about “WHO” in the community benefits from any increase in jobs and investment is attracting widespread attention.

Economic research shows that since the year 2000, minority groups such as Hispanics and African Americans, have been affected by declining of household incomes, growing inequality in income distribution, higher levels of unemployment, concentrated poverty, and low rates of mobility among classes (IEDC, 2016). Unfortunately, the downward trend in economic opportunity continued during the economic recovery, and recent data shows that it has further deteriorated amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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