As owner of Binghams Traditional Clothing store for 27 years, David Danuser has followed the city’s economic trends the best way possible: by experiencing them.
Working professionals are replacing the collegiate customers who once were Danuser’s primary patrons in the 1970s and '80s. In a sense, the change reflects Columbia’s evolution in culture and business.
“The whole world has gotten more casual,” Danuser said about the changing lifestyles.
“Not everyone wears suits anymore,” he said. “Not even in banks.”
Follow the money in Columbia’s overall economy, however, and it leads back to the largest employer — the University of Missouri.
The Missouri Economic and Information Center reports that Columbia residents fill 62,387 jobs every day.
Employment in the public sector, which includes the university, public schools and government services, makes up 33 percent of all jobs in the city.
Working more than one job is fairly common, so the data shows more jobs in the market than people in the work force.
Whether that figure is significant depends on which city is compared to Columbia, said Michel-Ange Pantal, research analyst at the Economic and Policy Analysis Research Center at MU.
The types of industry prevalent in a city are contingent on a number factors, such as size, demographics and lifestyle.
“If you consider small towns, like a college town, health care and education may have the highest employment,” Pantal said.
Still, the private sector manages to employ 67 percent of the labor force, according to the state center’s report. More than half of private sector employment is concentrated in retail; health care; and food and accommodation services, such as hotels and restaurants.
Shelly Miller has been working at Mackenzie’s Seafood and Steaks since it opened two years ago on Rainforest Parkway.
The “French bistro with an American twist” has become the neighborhood hangout for those living on the north part of town, and Miller said she can recognize most of the faces the four nights she works every week.
“I’d say 75 percent of our clientele is who we’ve acquired over the last two years,” she said.
Workers ages 31 to 54 comprise 21,278, or 50 percent, of private-sector workers.
Half of all private-sector workers were employed in management and professional occupations in 2000; 50 percent are ages 31 to 54; and 50 percent had at least a bachelor’s degree,
Columbia’s central location naturally makes the city a shopping hub for rural residents, said Peter Mueser, an MU professor who specializes in labor economics.
Health care also benefits from this favorable location.
The hospitals cover a large section of the middle of Missouri, Mueser said. “People living between Columbia and halfway to each of the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City are coming here for health care.”
Mueser said Boone County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States. One reason is that Columbia is not as susceptible to the typical business cycles of an average city.
For instance, though Columbia does have some “light manufacturing” jobs, it doesn’t dramatically affect the city’s economy when times are bad, Mueser said. Big manufacturing towns exhibit cyclical employment, where ups and downs are common. College towns are unusual in that they can rely on students arriving every year, which keeps unemployment rates fairly steady.
Pantal said Columbia’s economy fluctuates at the beginning and end of every semester. As students flow back into Columbia, certain industries, such as retail, have increases in sales and revenue, he said.
The opposite is true when students leave.
“You can look at the evolution of the labor market in Columbia as a function of the university semester,” Pantal said.