President’s Message: March 26, 2020
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Center for Economic Growth is leveraging our extensive economic development expertise and status as a federally designated Manufacturing Extension Partnership center to provide the Capital Region’s business community with technical and disaster assistance support.
In the past two weeks alone, we’ve consulted with more than 30 Capital Region companies about strategies for adjusting to the economic disruption caused by COVID-19. And our list of companies seeking assistance is growing daily.
CEG COVID-19 Support Services
CEG is available for consultation for the following:
- Compliance with NYS executive orders;
- SBA and private financing options;
- Supply chain disruptions;
- Pivoting to manufacture protective personal equipment (PPE);
- Strategies for retaining talent;
- Intelligence from state and federal partners; and
- Much more.
See our below newsletter for more details on how CEG is helping Capital Region business navigate the pandemic and prepare for recovery. View our latest COVID-19 updates and list of business resources on our website here. Please contact us here.
The Current Situation
While we are witnessing an unprecedented disruption in our economy and unknowns abound, we know the Capital Region has historically weathered recessions better than the nation. I know that is a cold comfort, but it is a fact. For more than 25 years and through the last three recessions, the Capital Region’s unemployment rate has been lower than the nation’s.
Through the last recession we stood out nationally for our economic vitality and resiliency. The Brookings Institution even recently named our region the nation’s No. 1 metropolitan area for economic prosperity for the period spanning from the middle of the recession in 2008 to 2018. Earlier this month Brookings also found that among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro is the 4th LEAST exposed to a COVID-related recession because of our technology sector.
Helping us through those hard times have been a sizeable public sector, a diversified economy with strengths in technology, health care, education, financial services and manufacturing, and a talent pipeline supported by 24 colleges and universities. These assets have seen us through one economic crisis after another and they remain with us in this one. As a region, we are resilient. #CapitalRegionResilience
And please remember, as CEG works to support the Capital region’s business community through these trying times, it is the business community that has supported CEG for more than three decades. Please continue to support CEG.
We wish everyone a safe and healthy next few weeks.
Andrew Kennedy
President & CEO
