By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph’s population has stagnated, even fallen a bit, even though the city has gained jobs over the past few decades.
St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce President Patt Lilly says a big question faces city leaders as they observe that the city has gained an estimated 40,000 to 65,000 jobs since 1990, but the city population has stayed essentially flat.
“So, you’re saying to yourself, okay, we don’t have more people in St. Joe, but for some reason we have more jobs. So, what is going on with that?”
Lilly, during an appearance on the KFEQ Hotline, suspects the key is location, specifically St. Joseph’s close proximity to Kansas City. Lilly estimates a third of the St. Joseph workforce lives outside the community, many choosing to live in Platte County and the northern part of Kansas City.
“I’ve always observed and I don’t really have a good rationale for this, because I’m not from Missouri and I’m not from St. Joe, but there’s this odd relationship that we have with our friend to the south, Kansas City,” Lilly says.
Lilly speculates that if St. Joseph were farther away from Kansas City, its population would be larger, perhaps toward 100,000. St. Joseph has around 75,000 residents.
Another interesting note about the relationship between job growth in the city versus its stagnant population growth is that St. Joseph is poised to add even more jobs.
Lilly says many St. Joseph businesses could expand.
“You know, honestly, the only thing holding us back now is labor,” Lilly says. “Employers just simply cannot get enough labor to fill the jobs. That’s kind of the issue. It’s not unique, per se, to St. Joe, but definitely something that’s affecting us.”
Lilly says the city weathered the coronavirus pandemic, because many of its businesses were considered essential. St. Joseph is the third largest exporter in Missouri, behind only the metropolitan areas of Kansas City and St. Louis.