Latest Regional Economic Outlook

According to Economy.com's latest regional economic outlook, there are no surprises in terms of who is faring the best at this point. The West and South are emerging as leading regions in the U.S. economic recovery. The workforce in the South is stable, and the West has nearly stabilized. Their leads are slim, but a few of the larger metropolitan areas in the West and South are beginning to emerge with strengthening labor markets and stable commercial real estate markets.

While the phenomenal pace of growth in Las Vegas and Riverside-San Bernardino has faded, these markets are still expanding. Also benefiting the West, office vacancy rates are relatively low and stable in southern California. In the South, the worst of the downturn seems to be over in Houston and Dallas. Meanwhile, Florida’s payroll employment is the strongest among the larger states and its real estate markets are as strong as ever. Washington DC’s workforce is expanding consistently, and Atlanta saw job growth in the first quarter, bringing payroll employment back to where it was one year ago.

According to recent manufacturing purchasing surveys, older manufacturing regions are beginning to slow some improvement.

The numbers are not that impressive, even for the Southern and Western regions, which should see new growth in the 0.4 to 0.6% growth range through 2003. At least things are loving in the right direction.

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