By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Chamber CEO Debra Teufel knows there's still a long way to go for the local economy in recovering from COVID-19's effects, but she remains optimistic.
"There is still a lot of hurting out there," Teufel said Wednesday. "From an unemployment perspective, we're at 7%. We're double where we were at this time last year. We have come down since where we were early in April. Unemployment spiked to just over 11% then. It came down to 6.5% and then in July, it went back up slightly. From a retailer perspective, I think that retail remained fairly strong here after businesses were able to reopen."
Some businesses did close with COVID-19 as the final straw, but some are starting, too.
"We saw some business closure in some of our retailers," Teufel said. "Then, we saw Crow and Co. emerge as a new startup business to kind of backfill one of our vacancies downtown. We've seen some new health and nutrition businesses pop up. I think there's still strong, entrepreneurial pent up activity out there. From a manufacturing standpoint, I think manufacturing remains somewhat soft, but RFP activity has been strong."
The hope is that people will start making things in the U.S. again, rather than relying on international supply chains.
"I'm excited about the possibility that this country gets back to a place that we make more things here," Teufel said. "Hutchinson's a perfect place for that. We have a very diversified economy that knows how to make things well. I think we can be a beneficiary of that."
Supply chain issues at both Siemens and Collins Bus related to the pandemic gave them some struggles earlier in the year, but things are going okay for them right now.