Largest Industry Sector Growth Projections Indicate Future Site Selection Trends
by King White, on Aug 20, 2019 1:14:04 PM
Site selection trends will typically follow the growth of industry sectors. The challenge is figuring out which industries are growing, what types of operations they will need and where they will locate those operations. Economic developers continue to try to crack that code as they seek to get in front of these trends and position themselves to win projects including manufacturing plants, distribution centers, software engineering, call centers, data centers and other corporate operations that create jobs and capital investment. To help identify some of these macro trends, Site Selection Group has analyzed 40 of the largest industry sectors’ growth trends.
40 largest industry sector growth projections
The following diagram shows the 10-year growth projections for the 40 largest industry sectors between 2018 and 2028. The sectors employ over 140 million workers in both government and private sectors. They are projected to grow by just over 10% to 155 million workers over the next decade.
What type of operations could be expanded from this growth?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics measures the growth of particular industries by studying job projections. However, the types of workers needed in these industries will vary greatly. Some workers will need to be skilled like machinists while others will simply need some light computer skills to work in a call center. The following table provides a guideline to project types by industry.
Targeted Project Types by Industry
| Project Type | Industry |
|---|---|
| Call Centers |
|
| Data Centers |
|
| Distribution Centers |
|
| Manufacturing & Production Facilities |
|
| Medical Office |
|
| Retail Stores |
|
| Software Development/ Engineering Delivery Centers |
|
Where will companies locate their projects?
The site selection process utilized by companies to expand is very complicated and will vary depending on the project type and industry. Manufacturing and distribution operations will be greatly influenced by logistics and their customer base while call centers and software development operations will mostly be driven by labor needs. The following table summarizes some of the macro site selection trends by project type.
| Project Type | Macro Site Selection Trends |
|---|---|
| Call Centers |
|
| Data Centers |
|
| Distribution Centers |
|
| Manufacturing & Production Facilities |
|
| Medical Office |
|
| Retail Stores |
|
| Software Development/ Engineering Delivery Centers |
|
Conclusions
Industry growth and site selection trends are directly correlated. The days of throwing a dart at the map to identify where to expand are no more. As a result, you will find that growing industries tend to utilize more sophisticated site selection strategies to grow more strategically as they want to optimize their footprint. Hopefully this summary of some of these high-growth industries will help you think about where companies may be expanding into the future.
