Resilient Economy

The concept of economic resilience relates to a community’s ability to foresee, adapt to and advantageously leverage changing conditions. Economies are resilient when they demonstrate:

• The ability to recover quickly from a disruptor;
• The ability to withstand a disruptor; and
• The ability to avoid the disruptor altogether.

Disruptors may include:

• Downturns in the national or global economy that impacts demand for local goods and services;
• Downturns in economic sectors critical to maintain and sustain local economic activities; and
• External impacts such as natural or man-made disasters, closures of a major employer, changing climate, and other uncontrollable factors.

With recent experience gained from the Great Recession and the COVID-19 Pandemic, it is more important than ever to focus on resilient economic strategies. Our community’s long-term economic prosperity is linked to its resilience when facing disruptions to the local and regional economy.