The UW- River Falls Center for Economic Research (CER) in partnership with St. Croix Economic Development Corporation (SCEDC) has released the September 2012 edition of the St. Croix Valley Economic Dashboard 2.0. The dashboard is a snapshot of the economic condition of the labor, consumer and housing markets in the six county St. Croix Valley, which now includes the Wisconsin counties St. Croix, Pierce, Polk and Dunn, as well as the Minnesota counties Chisago, Ramsey and Washington. It presents the latest available data* in one convenient package and can be viewed on the CER's website at www.uwrf.edu/cer.
State and
National Indicators
The
U.S. seasonally adjusted annually growth rate for the second quarter of 2012
was revised to 1.7 percent, which 0.75 percentage points lower than one year previous.
The national unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent in August, down one percent
from a year ago.
In
Wisconsin, nonfarm payroll employment increased in July, by 0.7 percent from a
year ago. The unemployment rate declined 0.3 percentage points from a year ago
to 7.3 percent, but has increased 0.3 percentage points from last month,
according to the BLS survey of households.
The BLS survey of households finds that
Wisconsin has gained 19,202 jobs over the last year. However, the BLS survey of employers finds
that Wisconsin lost 21,900 jobs over the last year. The two surveys seem to indicate that much of
improvement in the Wisconsin labor market is driven by job creation in
neighboring states, not within Wisconsin.
Minnesota’s unemployment rate in July
was 5.8 percent, which is 0.8 percentage points lower than one year previous.
The
BLS survey of employers finds that Minnesota has gained 56,700 jobs over the
last year.
The
Philadelphia Fed’s Coincident Index of
economic activity
indicated the Wisconsin economy contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of .0.96 percent in July , and the Leading Index
is predicting essentially zero growth over next the six months. The Minnesota
economy contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.70 percent, but the
Leading Index for Minnesota is predicting a positive annual growth rate of 1.36 percent over next the six months.
Labor Market
The nationally we have seen steady, albeit
slow, improvement in the labor market. The national economy has added a total
of 1,808,000 jobs year to date.
In July, Wisconsin lost jobs in all major
sectors but three, other services, information and manufacturing. The most
significant job losses came in the leisure and hospitality sector (5,300 jobs
lost) and education and health services (2,000 jobs lost). Minnesota fared much
better with increases in 6 major sectors and significant decreases in only 2
sectors.
Conditions in the regional labor market are fairing better than the Wisconsin state average. The regional unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.2 percent in the month of July and it remains lower than the state average in Wisconsin of 7.2 percent, but is slightly above the Minnesota average of 5.8 percent. The data suggests that the St. Croix Valley’s relative economic strength is due to its proximity to the twin cities.
The
Wisconsin/Minnesota St. Croix Valley is comprised of St. Croix, Polk, Pierce
and Dunn counties in Wisconsin and Chisago, Ramsey and Washington counties
in Minnesota.
All six counties are located along the Wisconsin-Minnesota border. Four of the six
counties, St. Croix , Pierce, Ramsey and Washington, are included in the Minneapolis-St.
Paul-Bloomington MN-WI metropolitan area, a 13-county region with of population
of 3.25 million residents. For additional information on the September edition of the St. Croix Valley
Economic Dashboard, contact Dr. Logan Kelly at cer@uwrf.edu or (715) 425-4993 or William Rubin
at bill@stcroixedc.com or (715) 381-4383.
*Please
note that most regional data is available with between a one and two month
delay, thus the current month's dashboard will have data from previous months.
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