Recovery Slowdown for the Philadelphia Area

There seems to be construction going on in the city of Philadelphia, which is a sign that there are certain things getting done and some jobs available. However, while construction is going on, many people are being distracted by the fact that the economy is still struggling and the Philadelphia area is dealing with many of these struggles and challenges. Current readings that provide an indication on the economy has pointed to the fact that employment in the city will likely not return to pre-recession levels for another two years, at some point in 2014. In a different analysis, one that takes aims at the market of Philadelphia and was provided by the PNC Financial Services Group Incorporation, it has been said that the economy in the region will continue to move at a slow pace, especially when it comes to job growth and income growth as well.

Many people are left questioning when things will get better. There are many sectors that have been struggling to recover during these stressful economic times. Even sectors that have had better luck, including the manufacturing sector and the information technology sector, are not creating the amount of jobs that are needed in order to get the city out of the slump that it is currently in, especially during a time when the entire nation is in recovery mode. At one point, it seemed the city of Philadelphia was actually doing better than the nation as a whole. In fact, Phil Hopkins, the vice president of research for the Select Greater Philadelphia, had made it clear that Philadelphia had a lower jobless rate than the nation and was experience less job loss than other areas when the recession first started. This luck has since changed.

Just a few years ago, Select Greater Philadelphia decided to partner up with the IHS Global Insight as a way of producing quarterly indexes that provide insight on the current state of the economy and whether it is healthy or not. Over the past year, the index shows that there was a gradual increase but after a while, that turned into a gradual decline instead. The peak was during the month of February but declines have been taking place ever since and up until June. This type of trend provides added insight on the growth of the economy and the fact that it will likely decline a bit within the next few quarters. At this point, the economy for the United States as a whole is recovering faster than the region of Philadelphia.