By: The Pottawatomie County Economic Development Corporation (PCEDC) | 1.23.25
The final quarter of 2024 was a reasonably strong one for Pottawatomie County, with the labor force holding steady with previous months, and total sales and use tax revenues for both quarter four and the year exceeding these same totals from 2023. Home sales in the county were lower than in previous months, but this data does echo seasonal trends during winter months of the past couple of years. Building permits for the quarter just slightly trailed the 2023 quarter four total of 44.
Download a printer-friendly version of the Q4 report.
Pottawatomie County Employment & Workforce
The Pottawatomie and Riley County labor forces have stayed within the same general range over the past few years, particularly as we move well past 2020 and the following rebound period. In November, Pottawatomie County’s labor force reached over 12,800; we may anticipate this number to continue to fluctuate slightly throughout the upcoming months, but a low unemployment rate of 2.7% (figure not seasonally adjusted) positions Pottawatomie County strongly within the state and surrounding counties. Both Riley and Pottawatomie County came in below the state unemployment rate of 3.4% in November.
Pottawatomie County Sales Tax and Retail Sales Data
This past quarter’s sales and use tax data indicates that Pottawatomie County generated slightly more revenue in 2024, compared to the same months in 2023. The difference in the final quarter is just over $37,000 in additional revenues.
In total, 2024 Pottawatomie County sales and use tax revenues exceeded those in 2023 by $63,451. The average sales and use tax revenue per month in 2024 was just around $483,481 – the additional $63,000 generated by the county in 2024 is relatively small in the scope of the county’s tax incomes, but is nevertheless a good indicator that spending stayed strong in 2024, despite national economic uncertainty and inflation. The tax revenue totals were $5,673,304 in 2023 and $5,736,755 in 2024.
Pottawatomie County Housing Trends
Pottawatomie County’s Housing market admittedly slowed as the year came to a close. This slow-down is keeping in trend with the past couple of years, where winter months saw a decrease in home sales, and year-over-year comparisons for each month’s sales numbers reflect little change. If this trend repeats into 2025, we will likely see a slow start to the new year – as a benchmark, January and February of 2024 saw sale counts in the mid teens.
National & Global Concerns
Fast-growing occupations in the country, according to a recent article by USA Facts, include wind turbine service technician, solar photovoltaic installer, nurse practitioner, and data scientist roles. The data behind this article comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s recent employment projections, which reported job counts in 2023 and provided estimates for 2033. While wind turbine service technician roles are expected to see the highest rate of growth, several medical and home-health related occupations, as well as software developer and computer and information systems managers occupations, are expected to add some of the highest numbers of employees.
What about the fastest-growing industries within the Manhattan Metro? According to the Greater Manhattan Economic Partnership’s data center, Federal Government, Construction, Professional Services in Architecture and Engineering, Healthcare, and Finance and Insurance are among the subclusters that created the most new jobs in the past 5 years:
