QA&
REGIONAL PROFILE
RUNNING ON EMPTY? MIDWEST IS
IN FOR DRAWN OUT RECOVERY
The country needs to focus less on how bad things
are in Washington, D.C., and focus more on how bad
things are at the state and local levels.
With 15 million people in this country out of work, and 9 million people underemployed, it may take years to recoup the lost jobs. And for
those out of work, state unemployment benefits are running out or are close to running out because the lack of
jobs means a lack of taxes collected to support the benefits, not to mention other programs.
To make matters worse, while the economy is said to be
out of the recession, it still feels like the ending stages of a
recessionary period. And, a major structural change is taking
place, where consumers are spending less and putting more
funds into their savings, says Ken Goldstein, economist, The
Conference Board, which doesn’t bode well when two-thirds
of the economy is based on consumption. What’s more, the
federal stimulus funds are set to wind down.
What does it all mean to businesses as they make
investment decisions about where to do business?
Goldstein speaks about the state of the economy, and
the Midwest region in particular, as of late April.
To learn the most up-to-date data on the economy
view The Conference Board’s latest Index of Coincident
Economic Indicators, at www.conference-board.org.
Global Corporate Xpansion: Highlight the findings
of the Consumer Confidence Index released near the
end of April.
Ken Goldstein: There were no surprises. We need to
go back to last autumn when at that point consumers felt
like we were going to come out of recession and they were
anticipating some improvement in the labor market.
