Hampton Roads jobs faring better than most in U.S.

Jobs in the region in the second quarter of 2009 slipped by 2.1 percent from the peak in 2007. That compared with an average decline of 3.8 percent in the 100 largest metro areas.

Hampton Roads' unemployment rate of 7.4 percent during the quarter remained well below the 9.7 percent average for the 100 areas, according to the Brookings Institution report. The output of Hampton Roads' goods and services has slipped only 0.8 percent from the peak during last year's third quarter. The average decline was 3.7 percent for the 100 areas.

Housing prices were down 2.1 percent from one year ago, according to the Brookings report. That put the region on the bottom half for the 100 metro areas, where the average decline was 4.4 percent. A rising number of foreclosures also put a damper on regional economic recovery. Hampton Roads saw 2.43 real estate owned properties per 1,000 mortgageable properties, while the average among metropolitan areas was 4.20. who's worse off?

The downturn in autos hit Detroit and Toledo, Youngstown and Dayton, Ohio. Housing woes hurt Miami, Tampa and a half-dozen other Florida metro areas. Las Vegas; Portland, Ore.; and Providence, R.I., also fared poorly.

Get a link to the full report at PilotOnline.com. The recession has spared almost no region of the country, but lower-than-average job losses have helped Hampton Roads fare better than most of the nation's major metropolitan areas, a nonpartisan research center said in a report being released today. // In a study of the 100 largest metro areas, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News region ranked among the 20 strongest, the Brookings Institution in Washington said.

Its study considered changes in employment, jobless rates, regional output of goods and services, housing prices and foreclosed real estate in each metro area.

A handful of the nation's 20 strongest regions, including Hampton Roads, San Antonio and Washington, benefited from having a significant concentration of defense or government activity, noted Alan Berube, research director for Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program and co-author of the study. "I'd rate that as among the most important factors" for the strength of Hampton Roads' economy, he said.

The number of jobs in the region during the April-through-June quarter had fallen only 2.1 percent from the peak two years ago, the study said. That compared with an average decline of 3.8 percent for employment in the 100 largest metro areas.

In addition, Hampton Roads' unemployment rate of 7.4 percent during the quarter remained well below the 9.7 percent average for the 100 areas, Brookings said.

Meanwhile, the output of Hampton Roads' goods and services has slipped only 0.8 percent from the peak during last year's third quarter, while the average decline was 3.7 percent, the Brookings study said.

However, the recovery of Hampton Roads' economy has been restrained by a decline in housing prices and a rising number of foreclosures, Berube said.

Greg Grootendorst, deputy executive director for economics at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, said the findings in the Brookings study were logical, but he expressed wariness about drawing conclusions about the region's future performance.

"We are doing OK, but we are not out of the woods by any stretch," Grootendorst said. "I would be cautious about saying that we are at the forefront of the recovery."

That's partly because of continued uncertainties in the housing market, including the impact that the repricing of interest-only home loans might have on borrowers in the region, he said.

Still, the Hampton Roads economy continues to benefit from the heavy flow of defense spending and having a diverse job base in such sectors as leisure and hospitality and port activity, Grootendorst said.

At a time when the pace of job losses nationwide is slowing, there are stark disparities in the economic performance of different metro areas, something that Brookings sought to highlight, Berube said. The quarterly MetroMonitor report being released today is the second one it has issued so far this year.

"While several metro areas may have reached a turning point, there are many others that still haven't touched bottom, as well as a few that have almost fully recovered," Berube said.

The 20 metro areas with the weakest economic performance, according to the study, include several battered by the downturn in auto manufacturing: Detroit and Toledo, Youngstown and Dayton, Ohio. The 20 weakest also include Miami, Tampa and a half-dozen other Florida metro areas that were hit hard by the collapse in housing activity.

Tom Shean, (757) 446-2379, tom.shean@pilotonline.com