New Orleans' economic recovery continues to steadily improve, though not quite as quickly as it was moving three months ago. A study released Wednesday (Sept. 25) by the Brookings Institution ranked the city sixth in its recovery rate among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas -- down from a fourth-place ranking in July. Despite the rosy outlook, New Orleans...
New Orleans' economic recovery continues to steadily improve, though not quite as quickly as it was moving three months ago. A study released Wednesday (Sept. 25) by the Brookings Institution ranked the city sixth in its recovery rate among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas -- down from a fourth-place ranking in July.
Despite the rosy outlook, New Orleans remains a difficult economy to track. When the Great Recession struck much of the country in 2008, southeast Louisiana felt relatively little effect mostly because it was three-years deep in federal aid and its recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
"New Orleans is so unique because it experienced the recession so differently from the rest of the United States," said Siddharth Kulkarni, one of the authors of the study.
The Washington think-tank based its quarterly findings on four indicators of each city's economic condition: jobs, unemployment rates, production and the regional housing market.
The New Orleans area, including Metairie and Kenner, is first among large metropolitan areas in job growth since July. However, it ranks near 98th in unemployment rates over the summer. It's a disparity that is linked: with more jobs available, more people who have been out of work for a long time are restarting their job searches and thus reentering the unemployment ranks.
Housing prices and the region's "output," which translates to its gross domestic product, also continue to rise. But New Orleans remains near the rankings' bottom -- 91st -- in its overall struggle to return to the levels it enjoyed before it hit its lowest economic point in September 2005. Having fallen so far after the floodwalls failed, New Orleans' climb out is just that much steeper.
