Missouri is falling behind, according to research from the past year.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry moved to reverse that trend Wednesday as it presented Missouri 2030, a 15-year strategic plan for the state to start reviving Missouri's economy.
"What we found is that in many key economic measurements, Missouri is slipping," said Missouri Chamber President and CEO Dan Mehan. "The goal of Missouri 2030 is to turn that around and make Missouri a global leader in job creation, wage growth, economic productivity and output - measurements that matter to the future economy of our state."
The Missouri Chamber collaborated with Gallup and economic strategists over the past year to assemble data from interviews with more than 1,000 Missouri CEOs as well as hundreds of Missouri employers, chambers of commerce and local leaders and national site selectors - forming a comprehensive analysis of the state's economic performance and business environment.
Missouri's employment growth totaled 2.5 percent from December 2004 through December 2014 - ranking 42nd in the United States - according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of Missouri's surrounding states, only Illinois performed worse. The state ranked 37th in the nation for income growth.
The state's production performance has been bleak as well: Missouri's GDP grew by 0.8 percent between 2003 and 2013 - 43rd among the 50 states - while the national per capita GDP grew by 7 percent during that time, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
To turn those trends around, the chamber's Missouri 2030 plan focuses on four key areas: uniting the business community around a long-term economic plan, preparing the workforce for the jobs of the future, competing for jobs by keeping Missouri's business climate strong and fostering entrepreneurs, and connecting employers to markets and resources through cutting-edge infrastructure.
"Fragmentation has really become the norm in Missouri. How many times have we seen important progress stalled because of dissent between one interest or the other or the divide between our political parties or the urban and rural interests?" said John Sondag, president of AT&T-Missouri and a member of the Missouri Chamber's executive committee.
Only 20 percent of Missouri business leaders surveyed said they believe politicians are committed to improving Missouri's business climate, the Gallup research shows.
"That's why a unified plan is so very important," Sondag said.
Missouri 2030 lists action steps to help unite businesses including creating an online dashboard to display Missouri's progress on key economic indicators to hold leaders accountable for improvement, continuing to hold strategic planning sessions with influential CEOs, building up the Missouri Chamber Federation network of local chambers of commerce, and offering free membership to the Missouri Chamber for small businesses of 10 employees or fewer who are affiliated with Missouri Chamber Federation members.
When it comes to developing the state's workforce, the chamber plans to focus on improving education. The Gallup research paints a bleak picture of employers' confidence in the workforce available to them: only 15 percent of Missouri business owners said they believe high schools are preparing students for the workforce, 42 percent believe colleges provide workforce preparation, and 30 percent believe Missouri attracts or retains top talent.
"We can do better, and we must do better," said Rudy Farber, chairman of Community Bank and Trust in Neosho. "This is not by way of an indictment of our education system; rather, it is a wake-up call to business - we need to do a better job of letting the educators know what business needs from our schools, from our colleges and universities and training programs."
The chamber's action steps include increasing the voice of business on education and workforce policy issues via a governmental affairs liaison, working to align educational outcomes with business needs and increase the number of students considering targeted sectors such as STEM and technical employment, and optimizing existing training programs to address current gaps.
When it comes to helping Missouri compete for jobs, the chamber plans to advocate legislative initiatives and support other market-based initiatives concerning issues such as taxes, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, labor relations and health-care policies, as well as increasing the chamber's capacity to engage in litigation on behalf of Missouri employers.
The chamber's focus also on improving the state's infrastructure comes after Amendment 7 to help fund statewide transportation improvements failed last year.
"This issue is too big just to give up on," said Dirck Clark, Missouri Chamber executive committee chairman and chief strategy officer of Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph. "Missouri's central location provides a clear competitive advantage, which only gets stronger if you add in river ports, railroads, airports and highway systems. However, Missouri's infrastructure needs investment to leverage those strengths."
He noted technological infrastructure like high-speed Internet service as well as affordable, reliable energy are also key issues.
Among Missouri 2030's action steps for infrastructure improvement are bringing together current and prospective exporters and trade professionals to develop international trade growth and developing a long-range plan for sustainable infrastructure funding.
"No one's going to take our location away. ... We should be the logistics distribution center for the Midwest, the country and the continent," Mehan said.
"The hard data that we uncovered and the fact-based approach that we have is very compelling for legislators or statewide officeholders to take a look at and be compelled to action."
The full Missouri 2030 plan is available online at mo2030.com.