Jackson - One of 20 Strongest-Performing Markets in 2nd Quarter (Columbia: unemployment rate, college)

[jacksonian]

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/inde...arkets_092109/

"Saying that the South was 'overrepresented' in both the strongest and the weakest performing areas, the MetroMonitor report included six cities in Texas (Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, McAllen and San Antonio), Baton Rouge, La., Columbia, S.C., and Little Rock, Ark. in addition to Jackson among the top 20 strongest performing metropolitan areas. The 20 weakest metro areas include eight cities in Florida (including Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa), three in California, Detroit and Grand Rapid, Mich., and Toledo and Youngstown, Ohio."

[brickpatio]

Interesting... Jackson and the Coast's unemployment rates are virtually identical to Dallas, Houston, Boston, and Minneapolis. I once looked up the median incomes of these places and found that the incomes of the bottom 20% are almost the same across locations. The big differences in economic status presently seem to be seen in places where state taxes and regulations are outright hostile to business owners, such as Michigan and California. At the moment many of the places doing the best seem to be college towns and places with oil and other energy.

[Not Made for the South]

This is great news. Plus, with all the business projects planned for downtown, the news is that much sweeter.