Where is the economy actually STRONG in the U.S.?

[M TYPE X]

Originally Posted by NittanyLion

State College, Pa is doing very well. Home to Penn State, the largest employer is the University. But many other things are also there, like Accuweather! SC is where Accuweather started!

I have relative that works there, other relatives in the Altoona and Clearfield areas, and my brother was at Penn State for one year. One of my favorite professors moved from Michigan to Penn State, too. Yet, they turned me down for grad school.

Do you have any statistics for State College, i.e. comparative growth numbers versus Ann Arbor, Bloomington, Champaign, Chapel Hill, Charlottesville, Madison, etc other research university towns, big and small? The last time I was in State College, it appeared to be growing.

[bigreez]

wyoming has a state unemployment rate below 4 percent and some counties are around 2 percent. Every employable person in the state has a job. Fast food is starting people at $9-12/hour in some towns and they arnt big citys bigest town in WY is around 50k people.

[ruggergal3]

Originally Posted by ajf131

Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and Kentucky I agree are all pretty dead I agree compared to other states out there. The Midwest has seen better days.

also agreed here. i find ohio to be extremely depressing. even when i live in a city, i still feel like there is nothing to do but go out to eat, get drunk, or go to the movies. haha. of course, i am exaggerating some, but these are the reasons i cant wait to move to an area with a warmer climate where i can do oudoor type things almost year round!!

[M TYPE X]

Originally Posted by ruggergal3

also agreed here. i find ohio to be extremely depressing. even when i live in a city, i still feel like there is nothing to do but go out to eat, get drunk, or go to the movies. haha. of course, i am exaggerating some, but these are the reasons i cant wait to move to an area with a warmer climate where i can do oudoor type things almost year round!!

Yes, you just described Akron. It's too bad, as the region has enough natural wonder and architectural history, but it's all going to pot.

[desertgirl]

Moody’s Economy.com has devised a Business Vitality Index that rates the overall economic vitality of a metro area by looking a a range of factors rather than just one measure. Of the top 50, Florida led with 12 cities followed by Texas 5, California 3, Oregon 3, with 2 cities each for North Carolina, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Utah.

Here’s the top 10 out of the 359 metros:
Austin, Tx
Fort Walton Beach, Fl
Corvallis, OR
Raleigh, NC
Fort Lauderdale, Fl
Boise City, ID
Orlando, Fl
Huntsville, Al
Sioux Falls, SD
Fargo, ND

For the rest of the top 50:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resourc...15_STATPKG.pdf

There are also other lists on the page for tax burden, poverty etc.

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by bigreez

wyoming has a state unemployment rate below 4 percent and some counties are around 2 percent. Every employable person in the state has a job. Fast food is starting people at $9-12/hour in some towns and they arnt big citys bigest town in WY is around 50k people.

Unemployment stats can be very misleading. Low unemployment doesn't mean that a place is booming, it could also mean that there aren't very many people moving there seeking work, while those who cannot find work leave the place for other areas with more opportunity. Another factor to consider is that the nice parts of Wyoming are very expensive. And the climate is extremely rugged.

In contrast, the highest unemployment areas of the country are almost always found along the southern Rio Grande river. Immigrants pouring over the border seeking work, northerners flocking to the region to escape cold winters --- lots of people seeking to be there and work, plagued with poverty, a horrible area of the country with heinous summers... Yet the economic growth rate and the opportunities for an entrepreneur along the Rio Grande are probably way beyond anything that Wyoming can offer.

A handful of counties around Brownsville has more people (labor) than the entire state of Wyoming. There's an imbalance between people seeking work and people offering it, and the explanations for these imbalances differ from place to place. My main point is that unemployment stats do not directly indicate economic growth and vitality. They simply measure the ratio of people who want to work relative to the number of people actually working, nothing more.

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by desertgirl

Moody’s Economy.com has devised a Business Vitality Index that rates the overall economic vitality...

Here’s the top 10 out of the 359 metros:
Austin, Tx
Fort Walton Beach, Fl
Corvallis, OR

Thanks for the info.

I'm depressed about Austin. We don't need more growth. I can't stand trying to get from one side of town to the other any more, it's merely an opportunity to listen to audio books or music while sitting in traffic that doesn't move.

Not surprised about Fort Walton, but very disappointed by that too. It's an ecologically important region with beautiful beaches AND it's prone to hurricanes.

The big surprise for me is Corvallis. Last time I was there it was a sleepy and quaint college town, quite small, very cute, and I hate to think of it booming and being inundated by transplants who will destroy the character of the place. But I can see why people would want to move there. Great university, easy access to a gorgeous coastline, easy access to Eugene and Portland, and a very mild (though drizzly, cloudy and cool) climate. What's not to like?

[carolinadreamin']

Hottest Job Markets

America's best jobs in the hottest markets | 1 | Business 2.0

[carolinadreamin']

Forbes best places for business and careers:

Best Places For Business And Careers - Forbes.com

[TheHarvester]

carolina, those are fantastic links! Thanks for posting them, and thanks to city-data for permitting hot-linking to such resources.