2 min read October 2023 — Nashville attracted so many new companies and people over the last few years that the region has the distinct opportunity to be more selective. “We now get to pick and choose what companies, jobs, and wages make the most sense for our communities,” Lyndi Berrones, Greater Nashville regional director for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, told Invest:.
What is the overall impact of your office on Middle Tennessee?
Our role is twofold – to recruit new companies to the state and to assist existing companies in expanding their local operations. Whether it is a new company or existing company, all of our work on the economic development front is with the goal of creating new jobs with higher wages for the residents of this great state.
As the Greater Nashville Regional Director, my team and I have the responsibility of overseeing a 13-county region in and around Greater Nashville. While many of these counties are urban, several in our region are considered rural and have very different selling points and aspirations. It is important that my team understand each and every community as economic development is not a “one fits all” approach.
Every year about 70-80% of all new job creation comes from existing businesses, so we try to keep close relationships with the companies that are here already because when those companies expand, we truly see it as a testament to the business environment and workforce we have here in Tennessee. It’s not always about the next headline announcing the hottest new company moving to town, it’s also about the company that started here, became successful here, and continues to grow here.
What makes Middle Tennessee ideal for business relocation?
It’s a mix of many things from our business climate and low taxes to our quality of life and workforce advantages. There is a lot of data out there that shows that job growth follows population growth and in the last five years, Nashville has been in the top five metros for both metrics. Companies want to create jobs where people want to live and where people are moving to. In Tennessee, and in Nashville specifically, we have seen a tremendous in-migration of people from markets that are a lot more expensive or where taxes are higher.
Everyone talks about COVID and the Great Migration, but Nashville was one of those markets that saw a significant influx of people. From a cost-of-living perspective, Nashville is at or right below the national average and offers a wide array of lifestyles and amenities for people to choose from. We are often referred to as one of the country’s most hip places to live and a lot of people assume Nashville is a lot more expensive and congested than it is; however, perspective is everything. When we are competing with or being talked about in the same lineup as cities like Atlanta, Dallas and Austin, I may be biased but I’d say we have the upper hand
Pre-COVID, about 80 people moved to Nashville a day and we expected it would take five to 10 years to get back to these same numbers. As of summer 2023, 100 net new people are moving to Nashville a day. People recognize that this is a cool place that offers great jobs with great pay, and don’t forget – we have some pretty great music to boot.
Is Middle Tennessee’s growth sustainable for the long term?
That is a key issue going forward. We need to focus on sustainability and continue building a great community with an emphasis on infrastructure like roads, schools, housing and public transportation. Managing growth is not an easy task, especially when Nashville has been such an attractive location for both individuals and businesses for the last decade. Sometimes it feels like the faucet must either be turned all the way on or all the way off with nothing in between. Slowing growth, trying to keep up or catch up with growth can feel impossible to balance. It will take forward-thinking leaders, public-private partnerships and state and local participation to ensure that Tennessee, and Nashville as a region, remain a place where people want to live and companies want to do business.
What is the biggest challenge facing the business community?
The availability of a skilled workforce is one of the top issues that companies are facing both locally and nationwide. Even with the in-migration of talent that Nashville sees daily, we are still at about 2% to 3% unemployment, which means that if companies are hiring in large numbers, they’re either having to steal labor from neighboring companies or they are likely extending job offers to people currently living out-of-state.
One thing Tennessee is doing to address this challenge is trying to match the skill sets of our residents with the needs of all of our businesses through programs like the Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect, which offers 2-year degrees or technical degrees/certifications at no cost. We want to make sure anyone who wants a job has the skill sets to fill the jobs on the market today.
In the last legislative session, the governor approved additional funding for technical education and training across the state. This is something we are taking very seriously because we know the workforce is an issue, and we want to be a state breaking barriers and addressing the problem head on.
Is affordable housing another challenge in your region?
Yes, it is. Nashville has seen a significant increase in housing costs over the last several years. When you’re a market seeing 80 to 100 net new people moving in a day, I don’t think there’s a world in which housing can keep up with that without prices increasing, even with the number of apartments and houses under construction currently. To remain a diverse and well-balanced community, we must make a concerted effort to provide housing options for all income levels. Again, this will take foresight from our state and local leaders as well as public-private partnerships to be successful. Thanks to companies like Amazon that see investing in a new corporate office and investing in affordable housing initiatives as equally impactful to their strategy locally.
That said, we must remember that the overall cost of living in Nashville remains at or just below the national average, which still makes us a desirable place for people to live, work and play.
What’s next on the agenda?
We are focused on attracting and retaining the jobs of the future to our state and the Nashville region. Economic development is now a two-way street and we get the opportunity to partner with companies that want to be an “employer of choice,” a company that invests in their corporate culture and values their employees in a way that helps them solve rising issues like healthcare costs and childcare.
We’re now at a point where we’ve been blessed to recruit so many good companies and jobs here that we get to pick and choose what relationships and partnerships make the most sense for our communities.
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