Single Page | 
Multiple Pages
Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > February 8, 2010
MMAC says local economy ‘is on the mend’
Published February 8, 2010 - BizTimes Daily
Previous | 9 of 9
Seven of 20 indicators of business activity in the Milwaukee area registered improvement in December, according to a monthly report by the Metropolitan
Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).
This marks the highest number of improvements posted since August 2008 and an upturn from the five improvements posted in November.
“In recent months the aggregate picture of local economic indicators suggests that Milwaukee’s economy has turned the corner and is on the mend,” said Bret Mayborne, economic research director for the MMAC. “While Milwaukee’s economy is likely to continue to improve throughout 2010, it will take the better part of this year, perhaps all of this year, before the local economy posts real year-over-year employment growth.”
The improved MMAC survey results affirm a BizTimes survey of the board of directors of the MMAC's Council of Small Business Executives (COSBE), in which more than 89 percent of the respondents said they believe the worst of the recession has passed and the economy is on the rebound.
Highlights of the MMAC's report today include:
- Three of Milwaukee’s 10 major industry sectors posted year-over-year employment
increases. The highest gain came in the educational & health services sector, which posted a 0.7-percent gain from the same month a year ago. The heaviest percentage decline was posted in the construction, mining & natural resources sector, down 14.1 percent from year-ago levels. - New car registrations in the metro area rose 28.1 percent in December over year-ago levels, this indicator’s first increase in four months and only the second year-over-year increase in 2009.
- Mortgages recorded in Milwaukee County rose 54 percent to 2,933 - this indicator’s seventh consecutive rise.
- Air passenger statistics at Mitchell International Airport finished 2009 strongly with four consecutive months of double-digit gains. Passengers numbered 728,067 in December, a 33.9-percent increase over year-ago levels.
The local employment market reflected mixed results.
New unemployment compensation claims in the metro area fell 17.3 percent in December (vs. December, 2008), following a 4.5-percent decline in November (vs. one year-ago), marking the first back-to-back declines in this indicator in almost three years (since January 2007). Conversely, the number of unemployed rose at a 44-percent pace in December (vs. one year ago), the 15th consecutive month of year-over-year increase. Despite double-digit increases, year-over-year growth in the number of unemployed has slowed in each of the past eight months.
Metro Milwaukee’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate averaged 8.6 percent in December, a 2.9-percentage point increase over one year ago. December’s local unemployment rate ranks lower than the 9.7 percent rate recorded nationally, but higher than Wisconsin’s 8.3 percent rate.
Employment levels in the Milwaukee area averaged 793,600 in December, the first time that local nonfarm employment levels have dipped below 800,000 in over 14 years (since, April, 1995). December’s 5.7-percent job decline matches November’s year-over-year rate but ranks smaller than declines posted in October and September.
The value of signed construction contracts, as reported by F.W. Dodge for November, was $145.6 million, down 38.6 percent from November, 2008.
