Job losses and gains during the first year of the recession.  How did we stack up?

06.19.2009

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released county level data on non-farm payrolls. This provides an opportunity to examine county job performance during the first year of the recession.
Floyd and Clark lost a total of 436 non-farm payroll jobs from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008 (the recession officially began in December 2007). On a percentage basis, this represents a -.6% decline. As a comparison, Louisville Metro experienced a 2% decline over the same period.

The impact of the nature of this recession is evident by examining job losses and gains in specific sectors. A decline in national consumer spending and housing challenges are impacting sectors like manufacturing, construction, and transportation. Locally, these sectors observed some of the largest job losses. A rise in unemployment and shifts in consumer behavior are evident through the impact of local retail employment.

While economic news will generally be negative during a severe recession for any region, there were some positive signs with this data release. Professional and business services (except temporary labor services) and finance and insurance enjoyed small gains. Accommodation and food services surprisingly saw a significant positive change in jobs. Other Services also experienced a noticeable increase over the recession year. A large component of Other Services is repair and maintenance, and households are increasingly relying on repair services, as opposed to buying an entirely new product. Finally, health care and social services saw the largest increase in non-farm payroll jobs. As one can observe from the numbers, health care and social services provided a significant buffer to overall job losses.

As the economy reaches a trough, and gradually begins to resume positive growth, do not expect a swift recovery. The consumer will continue to reduce debt levels, and spend less. This will continue to exert challenges to some of the sectors mentioned above.

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This information is provided by

Uric Dufrene. 

Uric Dufrene, Ph.D. holds the Sanders Chair in Business in the School of Business at Indiana University Southeast.  He conducts research on local and regional economic trends, and teaches corporate finance at the undergraduate and graduate levels.   He previously served as dean of the School of Business.