This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Not all of the economic-recovery statistics are glum, but they paint an uncertain picture.
Provo and Ogden added jobs faster than any other metropolitan area in the Intermountain West during the second quarter of 2011. Unemployment rates along the Wasatch Front were the region's lowest. Salt Lake City and Ogden were two of only three regional cities in which the production of goods and services was greater than before the Great Recession began.
But overall, according to Brookings Mountain West, "the pace of recovery remained anemic across the Intermountain West through the second quarter of 2011."
The periodic report, put out jointly by the University of Nevada Las Vegas and The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.,-based think tank, added this pessimistic note: "The outlook appears more uncertain than ever. The Intermountain West and the nation both end the second half of 2011 still struggling to break free from the protracted and intertwined jobs and housing crises."
Matters have gotten worse, said report authors Mark Muro and Kenan Fikri.
Through the first few months of 2011, regional output was increasing against the backdrop of a still-slumping housing market. But as spring moved into summer, they said, "even the output recovery had grown tepid. … Even places like Denver, Colorado Springs, Colo, and Ogden — which suffered only mild setbacks in the early quarters of the recession — have stagnated. … Output and employment increased hesitantly in eight of the 10 major metro areas, while the housing market slumped to new lows everywhere."
Based on five economic indicators, the report said:
Overall • "The pace of recovery in Utah's metros looked middle-of-the-pack." Albuquerque is doing the best, ranking in the Top 20 of recoveries largely through output that is almost 5 percent above pre-recession levels. The recovery is advancing most slowly in Boise, Idaho, Denver and Colorado Springs.
Employment • Outside of Provo and Orem, which stood above the pack in adding almost 2 percent more jobs in the second quarter, "the pace of employment recovery slowed." Salt Lake City was representative of that trend, floating along with only a 0.2 percent increase.
Unemployment • With jobless rates ranging from 7.6 to 7.9 percent, Utah's three metro areas were better off than other Intermountain cities. Las Vegas has improved for much of this year, shaving 1.5 percent off its unemployment rate, but it still had the region's highest at 13.8 percent.
"Despite the [six percentage point] range of unemployment rates in the region," Muro and Fikri wrote, "every metro has suffered from larger increases in unemployment than has the country."
Output • Salt Lake City, Ogden and Denver joined Albquerque, N.M., as the leading metro areas for economic production, surpassing their pre-recession levels, while Provo was almost there. While national output grew just 0.2 percent in the second quarter of 2011, Utah rates were 1.4 percent in Salt Lake City, 0.5 percent in Provo and 0.3 percent in Ogden.
Housing prices • They hit new lows in all Intermountain metro areas. Declines in Utah were in the middle of the rankings. But in the past three months, the country's bottom-five performers included Las Vegas, Boise, Tucson, Ariz., and Phoenix.
Foreclosures • Salt Lake City, Provo, Ogden and Las Vegas had the most significant increases in foreclosures. All rank in the worst 20 nationally. "The late-coming of the foreclosure crisis to Denver and the Utah metros, where the housing bust was relatively mild, is noteworthy," Muro and Fikri wrote.
mikeg@sltrib.comTwitter: @sltribmikeg —
Mountain Monitor
O A full copy of the report is available at bit.ly/qkWfci.