Growth in Struer despite higher unemployment than in 2008
Struer Municipality is one of the outer municipalities that today has fewer jobs than in 2008 before the financial crisis according to a new report from VIVE. Nevertheless, a large number of companies thrive in the municipality, many of them in BusinessPark Struer.
The report from VIVE, the National Research and Analysis Center for Welfare, shows that many jobs have moved towards the larger urban municipalities, and although employment is going up in most municipalities, the outer municipalities are still struggling to regain the jobs that disappeared during the financial crisis.
One of these outer municipalities is Struer, which has 23.3% fewer jobs than in 2008, despite several municipal initiatives that together with many private companies create jobs and growth. Due to this, both of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s news casts, P4 Midt & Vest and TV Avisen, chose to take a closer look at developments in Struer, including a visit at Conpleks.
Founded in 2010, Conpleks was the first company to join BusinessPark Struer, which was established in the premises, Ericsson left after the closure of the Struer department. The purpose of BusinessPark Struer is to run a development park for technology-based entrepreneurs and growth companies in Northwest Jutland. Over the ten years, the BusinessPark has existed, more than 120 jobs have been created, and Conpleks stands for twelve of them.
Employment changes
Ten years ago Struer suffered large layoffs at Bang & Olufsen as well as the closure of Ericsson, Rationel Vinduer, the pig slaughterhouse and the poultry slaughterhouse as well as the beef cut process at Danish Crown. As a result it became necessary to restructure, and out of the ashes of the financial crisis several companies emerged in Struer. Companies of which, the focal point was technological knowledge, entrepreneurship and innovation.
In continuation of this, Struer Municipality, among other things, launched Business Strategy 2021 with a growth plan, which in the long term is meant to create 100 local jobs by letting ten selected companies, including Conpleks, undergo a business development course. Furthermore you have the establishment of BusinessPark Struer, Sound Hub Denmark and the City of Sound together with a growing number of employees at Tax Center Struer, Harman and Phillips-Medisize. Together with several privately owned companies, these companies have together created about 500 new jobs in the municipality so far.
In general job growth replaces unemployment
The report shows that employment was severely affected nationwide by the economic crisis, especially in the first year of the crisis from 2008 to 2009. Employment continued to decline until 2012, but has subsequently increased year by year, so employment from 2017 has been at a higher level than in 2008. This means that the loss of jobs after the financial crisis has more than recovered on a national level due to good growth conditions in the years after 2013. However, this overall development in the number of jobs covers large differences across municipalities, where some municipalities in the years from 2008 to 2018 have gained 20-30% more jobs, while other municipalities like Struer have experienced a 15-25% decline.
The news in Danish on Struer Municipality and Conpleks on television in TV Avisen January 10 starts at 19:22 into the broadcast.
Information about the report is available during the radio show P4 Morgen Midt & Vest, while the feature on Conpleks begins at 1:13:04 into the broadcast, which is in Danish.
In addition to Conpleks, P4 Midt & Vest also visited Thomas Højland, who has started his own company in BusinessPark Struer, which resulted in an article in Danish.