The Market Street Study revealed that the region has experienced a stable economy that buffered the region from the Great Recession but depends heavily on the public sector employment, which experiences unpredictable troop movement from Fort Riley and fluctuating student enrollment.  The benefit of employment anchors such as Kansas State University and Fort Riley is that the region can pursue economic diversification from a very solid base of assets and leverage these employers as catalysts for improving the region's job mix and talent across multiple skills sets.