Lansing’s Westside neighborhood has added 55 jobs to the Lansing community in the last two years, according to data collected in the recently released Westside Business Survey.
From 2006 to 2007, surveyed businesses on the Westside reported a net gain of 24 jobs. From 2007 to 2008, a net gain of another 31 jobs was reported. From 2007 to 2008, nine of the businesses surveyed increased their staff numbers, three decreased, and seven stayed the same.
“It was really good to know that "Yes, our area is creating new jobs,'” says Jessica Yorko with Lansing's Westside Alliance.
The Westside Business Survey helps the Westside Alliance determine how to help Westside businesses grow, generates data for grant reports, and benchmarks business growth or decline.
Yorko says she was also pleased with businesses’ responses to the Westside Alliance as an organization.
The survey asked businesses if the Westside Alliance helped their business: seventy percent said yes. The other 30 percent indicated that they were new to the area and hadn’t been around long enough to benefit from the Alliance’s services.
Participants were also asked if they’d like to see the Westside Alliance continue. 100 percent of respondents said “Yes,” including the 30 percent who said they hadn’t benefited from the Westside Alliance’s services.
“That 30 percent said ‘Yes’ because they said we’ve helped the district,” Yorko says.
Source: Jessica Yorko, Lansing’s Westside
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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