Map courtesy of Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance (HREDA)
With its output of goods and services on the upswing, Hampton Roads continues to rank among the country’s 20 strongest metro areas in economic performance, according to analysis by the Brookings Institution.
The Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was one of only six in the nation that regained peak output by the summer quarter, Brookings Institution said in its latest report on the economic health of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas.
Hampton Roads’ jobless rate of 6.7% for the July-through-September quarter was the 11th best among major metro areas. Manufacturing employment stabilized and even grew slightly in the region during the third quarter.
The tax credit available to first-time home buyers and the Cash for Clunkers incentive program appeared to contribute to Hampton Roads’ economic growth, as they did for most metro areas.
Earlier this year, Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program began measuring the economic health of metro areas by focusing on changes in their employment, jobless rates, output of goods and services and housing prices. Its reports for this year’s first and second quarters also included Hampton Roads among the top 20 metro areas in economic performance.
In addition to the rebound in its output, job losses in Hampton Roads have been less severe than in many metro areas, the Brookings report noted. Between the summer of 2007 and this year’s third quarter, employment has declined 2.2% in Hampton Roads while the average for the 100 largest metro areas was 4.3%.
Several companies have announced plans to close facilities in the region during 2010, which could generate significant job losses next year and threaten continued economic expansion. These include International Paper (closing its paper mill in Franklin with 1,100 workers); CooperVision Inc. (shutting down a contact-lens plant in Norfolk with 570 employees); and Verizon Wireless (closing a Virginia Beach call center with 400 employees).
Hampton Roads’ economic performance in the third quarter compared less favorably with the metro-area averages when Brookings applied housing-market indicators. The pace of home repossessions in the region increased more rapidly than the average for the 100 largest metro areas, while local home prices fell 2% from the year-earlier quarter, according to the report. Among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, half have seen increases in their home prices since last year’s third quarter.
Despite the evidence of rising output in goods and services nationwide, job growth remains spotty, and the U.S. economy “still seems a long way from posting the sustained job gains that would meaningfully lower unemployment and boost incomes,” the report said.
In addition to Hampton Roads, Brookings’ roster of the 20 strongest metro areas includes Austin, Texas; Columbia, S.C.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Washington, D.C. A separate list of the 20 weakest regions includes Detroit; Las Vegas; Orlando, Fla.; Portland, Ore.; and San Jose, Calif.
excerpts by Tom Shean, The Virginian-Pilot, orginially published December 15, 2009
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HR Partnership says:
March 9, 2010 at 1:05 am (UTC -4 )
Unemployment steady in Hampton Roads
By Tracy Agnew | Suffolk News-Herald
Published Saturday, February 27, 2010
While unemployment numbers in Virginia continue to hover around 6.7 percent, a regional economist says Hampton Roads is doing better than the nation in its unemployment.
“We’re doing quite well in comparison’s sake,” said James Clary, an economist with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. “Our unemployment rate is up to 6.9 percent. That represents an increase from where we were last quarter, but still below the highs in June and July.
Compared to the nation, the region is doing 2 percent better in unemployment. Clary noted military personnel are not included in Hampton Roads numbers. If they were, unemployment would be only 6.1 percent.
“Military employment and defense spending have stabilized the Hampton Roads economy during this recession,” Clary said.
Since December 2007, the Hampton Roads region has added 11,000 people to the labor force, Clary said.
“That separates the Hampton Roads labor market from the discouraged workers story experienced in other parts of the country,” Clary said.
For the coming year, Clary is cautiously optimistic about the region’s economy. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission’s quarterly report predicts that employment will increase about .8 percent in 2010. The commission’s economists also predict that government, education and health care employment will remain strong, while retail and wholesale sales will continue to suffer as they have throughout the recession.
For people looking for employment, an industry trends report from Indeed.com estimates that Hampton Roads has four unemployed workers per job opening, placing the region out of top 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. By comparison, Washington, D.C. has one unemployed person per job opening, and Detroit has 14 unemployed per job opening.
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2010/feb/27/unemployment-steady-hampton-roads/
HR Partnership says:
March 19, 2010 at 9:33 pm (UTC -4 )
Good news: Hampton Roads continues to outperform other metros
Hampton Roads continues to rank among the 20 strongest-performing metropolitan areas, according to the latest Brookings Institution report.
The institution’s fourth quarter Metro Monitor showed that Hampton Roads ranked third-highest in the nation for its change in gross metropolitan product from its peak by growing 2.9 percent, while the nation showed no growth.
It ranked sixth for its one-quarter change in employment by growing 0.4 percent and ranked seventh for change in employment from its peak for falling 1.8 percent. The U.S. average for change in employment from peak was a 4.9 percent decline.
Hampton Roads ranked in the middle, at 50th, for the rate of real-estate-owned properties, which was 2.6 per 1,000 mortgageable properties. It ranked 62nd for its one-year change in housing prices, down 7.4 percent, while the U.S. average was down only 6.5 percent.
Posted by Veronica Chufo on Wednesday, March 17, 2010
SmartRegion.org » Hampton Roads: Wise, Methodical and Imagineering says:
June 15, 2010 at 6:13 am (UTC -4 )
[...] Roads has fared well during the recession. The Brookings Institution ranks the region as a top 20 metro for economic performance during the recession and cites the military as the [...]