Indicators portray an economy that has continued a robust path toward more expansion.
Economic developers are now lamenting the diminished labor pool as the area's number one bulwark against continued economic expansion. In late 1996, Battle Creek Unlimited caused the completion of a study begun by the late Randall Brock, of the BCU Incubator Services Center. The study identified a number of barriers, including reliable transportation, childcare, education and training, and a lack of familiarity with the economic mainstream. All of these reasons characterized the persistence of poverty and racial isolation in Battle Creek despite an extremely healthy local economy. The Problem with which we will be concerned is the lack of familiarity with the economic mainstream.