GRAND RAPIDS, MI - West Michigan's comeback from the Great Recession puts the region in league with Portland, Ore. and other fast-growing cities, economist George Erickcek told a gathering of West Michigan business leaders on Thursday, Dec. 10.

West Michigan's manufacturing-based economy may not repeat the robust growth it showed in 2015, but 2016 and 2017 should show continued growth, Erickcek said in his forecast to Right Place Inc.'s 2016 Economic Outlook breakfast at the J.W. Marriott.

"It may not get better than this," said Erickcek, a senior regional analyst for the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He has studied and prepared forecasts for the region for more than 20 years.

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Historically, the Grand Rapids area was considered a factory town with a highly productive but low-skilled workforce, Erickcek said. That has changed.

Grand Rapids now has a higher proportion of highly educated young professionals between 25 and 34 than other comparable mid-sized cities except for Portland, Ore., he said. "When you come that close to Portland, it's pretty impressive," he said.

Still, Erickcek said there's a missing piece to the recovery. While unemployment has fallen to 3.3 percent in West Michigan, wages in the region have remained flat, he said.

Economists usually expect wages to rise when there's a labor shortage. Erickcek said he's seen little evidence of rising wages in West Michigan, or across the U.S., where unemployment has fallen into the 5 percent range.

It remains to be seen if pay raises are yet to come as the recovery matures, he said, adding that there are some signs of wage growth in Ottawa County, which has had the region's lowest unemployment rate for the past year.

Erickcek said the local economy grew in the past year "for all the right reasons." New jobs were added and the labor force grew while the number of persons seeking work fell, he said.

Since the start of the Great Recession in late 2007, Grand Rapids' economy has grown by 9 percent while the rest of the nation has grown by just 4 percent, Erickcek said.

West Michigan's eight core industries also have out-performed their peers over the past 10 years, producing nearly 24,000 more new jobs because of the region's competitive edge, he said.

Jim Harger covers business for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.