Recovering Phoenix Rising Though Old Tricks
Louisville vs. Kentucky, No More
It’s game day. Kentucky’s two largest metro areas face off tonight as the University of Louisville Cardinals and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, of Lexington, go head-to-head in New Orleans in the final showdown before Monday’s NCAA championship game. READ MORE >>
Metro Job Engines Remain Stalled
This morning’s jobs report exceeded the hopes of many, ending a week of rather dismal economic news on a high note. The economy added 117,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate was 9.1 percent, the same as it was in June according to that month’s revised numbers. While there are probably few occasions that a national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent has seemed like good news, this was one of them. READ MORE >>
A Deeper Look at Unemployment
Last Friday’s jobs report brought some glum news. The unemployment rate remained pretty much the same from April to May of this year and the economy had added fewer jobs than needed to achieve a meaningful recovery anytime soon. However, a less cited jobs report that was released last Wednesday offers an important reminder: the unemployment situation is not the same among the nation’s metropolitan areas, nor is it improving uniformly. READ MORE >>
In Uneven Recovery, Shrinking Labor Force Boosts Numbers
The jobs report released earlier this month revealed that the unemployment rate had fallen a full percentage point since a year earlier, from 10.2 percent in March 2010 to 9.2 percent in March 2011 (seasonally unadjusted). However, numbers released Wednesday suggest that the pace of the jobs recovery remains highly uneven among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, and for a variety of reasons. READ MORE >>
To Compete Globally, Cluster Locally
Is globalization fraying the ties that bind? A recent article in the Economist suggests that links between companies in several of Italy’s revered industry clusters—geographic concentrations of interconnected companies—are weakening as the companies shift their market strategy in the face of fierce competition from low-cost rivals in emerging markets like China. READ MORE >>
Manufacturing’s Glimmer in the Great Lakes
The 21 largest metropolitan areas of the hard-hit Great Lakes region added more than 94,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2010--the largest one-quarter employment increase these places have seen in more than a decade. What’s even more surprising? The manufacturing sector accounted for more than a quarter of these job gains. READ MORE >>
Last week’s jobs report turned out to be a general disappointment, but it was probably especially troubling to metros that rely heavily on construction for jobs and output. That industry shed another 22,000 jobs in June, completely wiping out small gains it had made in February and March of this year. READ MORE >>
