Highly capable leaders who can operate in both the business and low-income neighborhood worlds are fairly rare. The potential impact of a sectoral program goes beyond the number of persons it directly places into jobs. One of the great promises of sectoral strategies is their potential for achieving larger, systemic change. Although sectoral programs often establish systems change as a goal, such change has often been difficult to achieve and can get tangled in local politics. Credibility and influence develops over time.
Sectoral programs can help create or save a lot of jobs.
A Center for Community change study of four sector programs in rural areas concluded that every one had a positive jobs impact, though the exact number of jobs were hard to document. Many of the jobs and small businesses created or assisted by the programs benefited low income people and communities. Those programs for which considerable data was available were very cost effective. One program that focuses on North Carolina s hosiery industry produced eight times more benefits than its costs. Focusing on a certain sector will make economic development efforts more effective.