In a recent Chicago Fed Letter, Scott Brave and Thomas Walstrum discuss a business conditions survey that the Chicago Fed has been conducting in conjunction with the Beige Book since March 2013. To measure economic activity in the Seventh District, they construct a set of diffusion indexes based on survey responses (which are explained in greater detail in the article itself). Brave and W... Read More
As of June 2014, total nonfarm employment for the U.S. is reported to be greater than its January 2008 peak by 430,000 jobs. In contrast, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan nonfarm employment as of June 2014 is still down by 550,800 jobs or 11.7% from its previous peak of April 2000 (Chart 1). In addition, since the start... Read More
Detroit is the focus of this blog examining economic development issues in the five largest cities in the Chicago Fed's District. (For a complete profile of all five cities see “Industrial clusters and economic development in the Seventh District's largest cities”. Relative to the other large cities, Detroit faces some special challenges. Home to the domestic auto industry, Detroit grew and flour... Read More
Community Development and Policy Studies at the Chicago Fed recently published profiles of a group of 10 cities that experienced significant manufacturing job loss in recent decades. The Industrial Cities Initiative (ICI) includes, Aurora and Joliet in Illinois; Fort Wayne and Gary in Indiana; Cedar Rapids and Waterloo in Iowa; Grand Rapids and Pontiac in Michigan; and, Green Bay and Racine in W... Read More
Income received by state residents remains an important and widely followed measure of economic progress.1 Personal income is income received from all sources (net of contributions to government social insurance programs, such as Social Security and Medicare).2 State personal income can be broken down into three categories: 1) net earnings by place of residence (e.g., wages and salaries)3; 2) div... Read More
On May 27, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation that would increase Michigan's minimum hourly wage, making Michigan one of seven states together with the District of Columbia that have passed legislation to increase their minimum wage this year. The other six states are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, and West Virginia. In addition, 32 other states have conside... Read More
At the latest Detroit Association for Business Economics (DABE) meeting of the 2013-14 season, John Silvia, chief economist, Wells Fargo, presented his outlook on the economy. Silvia said that he expects the annualized rate of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to be 2.8% for the remainder of 2014, with the pace of growth accelerating slightly to 3.1% in 2015. According to Silvia's outlook,... Read More
The automotive industry is synonymous with Michigan. This relationship was born of an explosion of technological innovation in Southeast Michigan, including the assembly line and key developments in the internal combustion engine and transmission system. Looking at innovative activity today, a hundred years later, it is not far-fetched to state that the geography of automotive innovation in N... Read More
The severity of this winter season has had a noticeably negative impact on everything from retail sales to industrial production. Roadway freight operations are no exception. The effects of the extreme cold and heavy snow, which started last December and has continued into March of this year, seem to be showing up in some recent economic data on freight services. Chart 1 below contains ... Read More
Recently, Detroit's newly elected mayor, Mike Duggan, visited the Detroit Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to discuss possible avenues of revitalization for the city with our Board of Directors. On this occasion—and as Detroit looks past its fiscal bankruptcy and toward a brighter future—we briefly took stock of the Branch's role in serving the Southeast Michigan community. Clearly, ... Read More
