Quote:
Originally Posted by Sun Belt
The only surprise on the map is Detroit, Michigan.
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It's hardly surprising. Look at the chart title.
They're looking at growth from 2010-2017. Metro Detroit has one of the least diversified economies in the U.S. and underwent the deepest recession (almost a depression) in 2008 and 2009.
It makes sense, that as the national economy recovered, and people started buying consumer goods again, that the nation's auto center would show higher-than-average job growth, which isn't indicative of a boom, but rather the reclaiming of some of the hundreds of thousands of previously lost jobs. The Big 3 and their suppliers generally had record earnings and sales during that time period, as households that had put off new car purchases reversed course, and as Chinese consumer demand boomed.
If your regional economy shrinks by 20%, and then grows by 5%, it isn't really faster growth than if your regional economy shrinks by 5% and then grows by 2%. The worse the economic hole, the better the recovery looks. And of course the inverse is true. When Silicon Valley crashed after the early 2000's dot-com bust, the jobs data for San Jose MSA were comically bad.