The Right Place Shares Economic Outlook for 2026

On Thursday, December 4, regional economic development organization The Right Place, Inc. hosted its Economic Outlook for 2026 for the Greater Grand Rapids Region. The event featured a state of the region presentation by The Right Place, Inc. President and CEO Randy Thelen, a national forecast by Fifth Third Bank Managing Director and Chief Economist Jeff Korzenik, and a state forecast by W.E. Upjohn Institute President Michael Horrigan.

“Greater Grand Rapids continues to grow, fueled by young talent and an increasingly diverse community. Our region remains competitive across our key industries while offering a more affordable cost of living than many comparable markets nationwide,” said Randy Thelen, President and CEO, The Right Place, Inc. “But there’s more to do. We need to keep pushing forward with a growth mindset to ensure long-term prosperity for our region.”

2025 Right Place Accomplishments
In 2025, the organization’s work has resulted in:

• Facilitating 19 business expansion and attraction projects.

• Collaborating with our partner counties with events and job creation.

• Conducting 600 business retention visits.

• Hosting more than 15,000 Tech Week attendees and a sold-out Tech Week Kickoff featuring Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak

• Hosting a sold-out Developer Day with 200+ developers and construction firms.

• Hosting a sold-out Place Matters Summit.

• Hosting six Talent Learning Labs for HR and talent professionals.

• Hosting a sold-out Go Beyond for women in tech.

• Hosting numerous events for its four industry councils (Supply Chain Management Council, Tech Council, Manufacturing Council, and MiDevice) and one cross-council event to facilitate more connections between regional businesses

• Supporting over 650 interns representing 114 universities and 84 companies at Hello West Michigan’s Intern Connect event.

• Publishing four industry research reports: State of the Region, Tech Report, Development Report and Manufacturing Report

During his presentation, Thelen expounded upon The Right Place’s 600 business retention visits. These meetings allowed staff to learn more about existing businesses and engage in dialogue to help ensure their prosperity in the region. The Right Place is often known for helping recruit businesses to the region, but as the figure shows, most of its work is helping existing businesses to grow.

State of the Region Report

After highlighting Right Place's accomplishments, Thelen walked the crowd through its fourth annual State of the Region report. This report is designed to inform the community of key trends impacting the region. It is the result of quantitative and qualitative insights from The Right Place’s economic development work across its 7-county collaborative and economic research performed by its Business Intelligence team. Key 2025 statistics from The Right Place’s State of the Region report include:

People

• 6.2% population growth over the last decade.

• 70.3% of the region’s population in the past year comprised diverse communities.

• 37% have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

• 25% of population is 19 or younger.

Place

• 3.1% industrial vacancy rate (compared to 7.6% nationally; lowest among top 50 markets).

• 1.4M SF of industrial space under construction.

• The region’s cost of living index is 7 points below the national average (92.6 vs 100).

• 86,000 more air travelers in the first 3 quarters of 2025 compared to 2024.

Prosperity

• Between 603,000 and 605,000 jobs in Greater Grand Rapids in 2025 (data only available through August).

• 1,300 new tech jobs were added in 2025 (nearly 41,000 in total).

• 65% of companies report increased sales. (+6.6% from 2024)

• 43% of companies plan to increase hiring. (-4.4% from 2024)

• 46% of companies plan to expand. (-11.5% from 2024)

• 24% of companies expressed issues with new employee recruiting (-22.6% from 2024)

Three-Year Strategic Plan Results

Thelen also provided an update on the organization's progress toward the final year of the 2023-2025 strategic plan. A new 3-year plan will be announced in early 2026. Click here to read the entire current strategic plan. Over the course of the last 3 years, the organization’s work has resulted in:

• 4,153 new and retained jobs against a 3-year goal of 4,000 new and retained jobs.

• $844.2M in new capital investment against a 3-year goal of $550M.

• $487.2M in community development against a 3-year goal of $100M.

• $30.90 average hourly wage against a 3-year goal of $26.50 average wage.*

(*This wage goal refers to the hourly rate of jobs created/retained within projects that The Right Place directly works on in its 7-county coverage region.)