CONTACT: Louise Bentley (715-874-4673
Momentum West, in partnership with the UW- River Falls Center for Economic Research (CER), has released the inaugural edition of the Momentum West Economic Dashboard. The dashboard is a snapshot of the economic condition of the labor, consumer and housing markets in the 10 county Momentum West Economic Development Region. It presents the latest available data (please note that most regional data that is available has between a one and two month delay, thus the current month’s dashboard will have data from previous months) in one convenient package. This data will be released on most third Fridays of every month.
To download the latest economic dashboard, go to http://momentumwest.org/index.cfm?event=ViewPage&contentPieceID=11311.
Overall indicators suggest continued, but slow, economic recovery in the Momentum West region. The unemployment rate decreased at both the state and regional levels. The regional unemployment rate dipped to 7.2% in April ‘11, which is 0.1 percentage points below the state unemployment rate. The decrease in the unemployment rate has been driven by a general upward trend over the last 3 months in both total employment and the labor force. Increases in both total employment and labor force are significant signs of improvement in the labor market.
The housing market is also showing some signs of improvement. While the median home price for the region is significantly lower in May ’11 than one year previous (the median home price is down 27%), the median price has increased each month since February ’11. It still looks to be some time before home prices reach the 2010 level.
For additional information on the June edition of the Momentum West Economic Dashboard, contact Dr. Logan Kelly at cer@uwrf.edu or (715) 425-4993 or Noel Eggebraaten at Momentum West at neggebraaten@cvtc.edu or (715) 874-4673.
