Missouri economy said in recession

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Like the nation, Missouri's economy is experiencing its first recession in a decade, state officials verified Thursday.

The recession traces back to last spring but was heightened by the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Joe Driskill, director of the state Economic Development Department.

Especially hard hit have been the travel and tourism industries. But big losses have been felt in both the manufacturing and services sectors.

"The economic vitality of Missouri is suffering along with much of the rest of the nation," and in some areas is worse, Driskill told reporters.

The National Bureau of Economic Research announced earlier this week that the nation was in a recession and that a 10-year economic expansion ended last March.

Parts of Missouri's economy were declining before then. State officials pointed to a multifaceted downturn:

Since January, Missouri has experienced a 2 percent decline in employment, losing nearly 56,700 non-farm jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The recent loss of about 1,000 jobs in airline-related industries is just a small part of that, but amounts to $37 million in lost wages and $3.7 million less in state tax revenues, Driskill said.

Some of the greatest employment declines have occurred in suburban St. Louis counties, eastern Missouri and west-central Missouri. But Driskill and other economists said they had no explanation for the declines.

The state's 6.18 percent decline in manufacturing ranked as the fifth worst in the nation from September 2000 through September 2001, behind only South Dakota, Mississippi, North Carolina and Delaware.

Missouri's manufacturing jobs peaked in April 1995 and began declining more sharply in April 1999. The job losses have been more dramatic since July 2000, the department said.

Personal income growth slowed to below 1 percent during the first half of 2001, lagging slightly behind the national average.

Although Missouri still ranks 18th nationally in personal income, it fell to 28th in personal income growth earlier this year, trailing the neighboring states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Missouri's retail sales have been flat or declining since the latter half of 2000, when adjusted seasonally and for inflation.