By Dave Gatton
February 17, 2003

"Our metro areas are the engines of our national economy, and they will also be the engines of our economic recovery," U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran told the Manchester Mayoral Economic Forum on February 6, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Citing how U.S. metro areas had driven the incredible economic growth of the 1990s, Cochran told an audience of Manchester businesses, educators, and union officials that metro areas accounted for 86 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, 88 percent of its labor income, and 84 percent of its jobs. "If America's cities and suburbs are not economically healthy, then the nation will not rebound," he said. "Any national economic plan must address how job and economic growth can be spurred in America's cities."

The economic forum was hosted by U.S. Conference of Mayors Urban Economic Policy Committee Chair Manchester Mayor Robert Baines and presided over by Conference President Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The mayors introduced to the Manchester audience a national economic recovery plan that included direct fiscal assistance to states and local governments, housing and brownfield development incentives, infrastructure development and additional funds for Medicaid.

Cochran and Baines released numbers showing that Manchester was the 69th largest metro economy among the nation's 319 metro areas in 2002. Its economy produced over $31.9 billion of goods and services, and ranked as the 130th largest economy in the world, larger than the economies of Iraq, Syria, and the Dominican Republic.

"We have demonstrated that U.S. metros are the driving force of our economy but right now they need a shot in the arm to spur job creation," Mayor Baines said.

According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Metro Employment Outlook, released at its Winter Meeting in January and presented to the Forum, the Manchester metro area lost 1,200 jobs in 2002. Other cities with mayors present, such as Boston, lost 42,400 jobs, Burlington, VT, lost 800 jobs; and Little Rock-North Little Rock metro lost 2,600 jobs.

In all, the report showed that the nation's 319 metro areas experienced a net loss of 646,000 jobs in 2002 and projected such slow employment growth in 2003 that little, if any, improvement in the unemployment rate is projected. The recent drop in that rate to 5.7 percent was largely due to technical issues related to how the rate is calculated, according to government sources.

Cochran told the gathering that the job loss picture was wide spread across the nation and that unlike previous downturns was not concentrated in one or two regions of the country. None of the sluggish job projections for 2003 included scenarios for war with Iraq, nuclear concerns over North Korea, or terrorist attacks in the U.S.

"We believe our job report shows a compelling case and need for an economic recovery plan that produces jobs in America's cities," said Cochran. "These are real numbers about real people who have lost their jobs," he said. "We are not looking for a hand-out, we are looking for a way to put the economy back on track to help everyone," he told the mayors and business leaders.

The report U.S Metro Economies: Metro Employment Outlook, can be found on usmayors.org.