Analysis shows Phila. faring better than most in recession
The Great Recession has made its mark on the region, but less of one than in comparably sized cities, the data show.
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It might be small consolation to the 82,000 Philadelphia area residents who have lost their jobs in the last 18 months, but this region is faring better in the Great Recession than many other parts of the country, according to data from Moody's Economy.com.
In fact, the region appears - at least this far into the current slump - to have entered a new era.
"This is the first recession since World War II that Philadelphia's economy has done better than the nation's," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester.
"It is testimonial to Philadelphia's more conservative business culture, which has limited the housing and mortgage bust, and the right mix of industries, including health care and educational services," Zandi said.
Among the similarly sized metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, and San Francisco, the Philadelphia region has endured the smallest drops in personal income per household and household net worth from their peaks during the economic expansion that ended in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to government and private data analyzed by Zandi's firm.
The energy-heavy Houston area economy topped Philadelphia with a smaller percentage decline in number of people employed and a smaller drop in real gross domestic product.
The peaks in the four economic measures came at different times for each metropolitan area.
The Philadelphia region has long been knocked for slow job growth, and that weakness was evident during the economic expansion of the U.S. job market from late 2003 through the end of 2007.
During that expansion, the Philadelphia region had the weakest job growth of the six metro areas, though it was only slightly behind Chicago and San Francisco.
On the other hand, personal income per household in the Philadelphia region - defined as the city and the 10 surrounding counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland - is not only holding up well during the recession, but only Houston's growth outpaced Philadelphia's by that measure during the expansion.
The decline of the more cyclical manufacturing sector may have contributed to this region's relative stability. Since the early 1990s, manufacturing employment as a percentage of the overall non-farm workforce has fallen to 7.5 percent from 14 percent, according data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.