U.S. Conference of Mayors Releases
New Metro Economic Report

A recently released report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors paints a not so bright picture of economic growth across the nation's cities and metropolitan areas. While hardly unexpected news, the shock effect takes hold when you actually see the numbers.

The Conference report says "the new report that finds that metropolitan areas lost 646,000 jobs in 2002. Two-thirds of metro areas lost jobs in 2002, including more than 20,000 jobs lost in each of 10 metro areas. The report predicts continued slow job growth in 2003."

It goes on to say that "213 of the nation’s 319 metro areas, two-thirds, lost jobs in 2002. Six metro areas – New York, Chicago, Atlanta, San Jose, Boston, and Seattle – lost more than 40,000 jobs each. Four additional metro areas – San Francisco, Detroit, Denver, and Los Angeles – lost more than 20,000 jobs each."

Were there any bright spots? Yes, the following metros saw favorable job gains (over 5 percent) in 2002: Riverside, CA; Las Vegas, NV; San Diego, CA; Kansas City, MO/KS; Miami, FL, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC; Jacksonville, FL; Washington, DC; Reno, NV; West Palm Beach, FL.

The job growth outlook for almost all U.S. metro areas is expected to be slower growth over the next 2-3 years.

One final tidbit from the study: the gross metropolitan economic output of the nation's ten largest metro areas is expected be larger than the combined economic output of 31 of the states. Once again, this reinforces the view that U.S. economic might is still heavily concentrated in our metro economies.