Cleburne economy strong despite pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic and shut downs that
followed adversely affected Cleburne just as they did the rest of Texas and America . Cleburne and Johnson County , however , fared better than many regions of the state and country . Better yet , Cleburne and the county appear to be rebounding .
“ Considering everything , we ’ ve hung on pretty well ,” Cleburne Economic Development Director Grady Easdon said . “ Our sales tax revenues , for example , for the most part stayed on par or better than they had been in 2019 .”
Shutdowns caused unemployment to spike but , as businesses have began to reopen , those totals have fallen .
“ Pre-COVID-19 we were down around 3 percent ,” Easdon said . “ We ’ re not back there yet . But , during COVID , it climbed to double digits but then came back down to around 8 percent then dropped again . Right now it ’ s back up around 8 percent but we ’ re thinking we ’ ll see those numbers go back down as the vaccines become more widely available .”
All in all , Easdon added , Cleburne sits well situated and the future looks bright .
“ Absolutely , we ’ ve come through this better than a lot of other areas ,” Easdon said . “ North Texas is a great place to be right now because we ’ re still seeing the
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